Abstract
The effect of Nd3+ concentration on the CW and Q-switched laser performances at 1064 nm from Nd: YVO4 has been studied under diode laser pumping in identical laser configuration. The Nd3+ concentrations used were 1, 2 and 3 at.% in YVO4 crystals. Under the CW operations we have compared the thermal lensing effect, slope efficiencies and also the beam quality at the fourth-order degeneracy configuration. Q-switching was done with the help of an acousto-optic modulator and we have compared the pulses obtained from Nd: YVO4 laser with different doping concentration. It was found that the 1 at.%-doped crystal is the best, offering highest optical-to-optical conversion efficiency (55%), lowest fractional heat load (24%), highest pulse energy (80 µJ) and shortest pulse width (20 ns). It was also found that there was not much difference in performances for 2 and 3 at.%-doped crystals both in CW and Q-switched configurations.
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Mukhopadhyay, P.K., Ranganathan, K., George, J. et al. Effect of Nd3+ concentration on CW and pulsed performance of fiber-coupled diode laser pumped Nd:YVO4 laser at 1064 nm. Pramana - J Phys 59, 75–89 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12043-002-0034-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12043-002-0034-3