Er/Yb glass laser with compact mechanical Q-switch

Brian Cole; Nathaniel Hough; Alan Hays; John Nettleton; Lew Goldberg

doi:10.1117/12.2213291

16 March 2016 Er/Yb glass laser with compact mechanical Q-switch

Brian Cole, Nathaniel Hough, Alan Hays, John Nettleton, Lew Goldberg

Proceedings Volume 9726, Solid State Lasers XXV: Technology and Devices; 972605 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213291
Event: SPIE LASE, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

We describe a compact, side-pumped, Er/Yb glass laser with a low cost mechanical Q-switch. The Q-switch uses a mirror or reflecting prism mounted on a cantilever resonant spring that is driven by a small electromagnetic coil. The demonstrated laser used a 5 mm long Er/Yb glass gain element, and was side-pumped by a 940 nm, 5 mm wide diode bar generating up to 100 W peak power. Target energies of 3mJ have been realized in a near-diffraction limited mode, with pulse widths of 15-25ns, and an optical-to-optical efficiency of greater than 2%. The mechanical Q-switch assembly was fully athermalized via mounting a displacing porro reflector to the cantilever spring, where a 2.5mJ laser was observed to operate with less than 5% variance over -35°C to+60°C.

Citation Download Citation

Brian Cole, Nathaniel Hough, Alan Hays, John Nettleton, and Lew Goldberg "Er/Yb glass laser with compact mechanical Q-switch", Proc. SPIE 9726, Solid State Lasers XXV: Technology and Devices, 972605 (16 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213291

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