High peak power and pulse energy Pr:YLF green laser using active Q-switching

Abstract

We demonstrate continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed laser based on Pr:YLF crystal at 522 nm in this work. In actively Q-switched operation, an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is used as a modulation switch, a pulsed laser with a tunable repetition rate from 2 kHz to 50 kHz is obtained. The performance of the lasers at different repetition rates is compared at a maximum absorbed pump power of 12.47 W. The maximum average output power, maximum peak power and single pulse energy at the repetition rate of 2 kHz are 258 mW, 3146.3 W, and 129 μJ, respectively, which, to the best of our knowledge, are the maximum values of Q-switched laser at 522 nm reported so far. The power fluctuations at the repetition rates of 2 kHz, 20 kHz and 50 kHz are 4.7%, 4%, 5.8%, respectively. The beam quality factors M² at repetition rate of 2 kHz are 1.83 (x) and 1.97 (y), respectively.