Upcoming presentation at Photonics West

SPIE Conference 10896: Solid State Lasers XXVIII: Technology and Devices, 05 February 2019

Acousto-optically Q-switched diode side-pumped Er:YLF laser generating 50kW peak power in 70ns pulses

We report on a new Q-switched diode side-pumped Er:YLF solid state laser emitting at 2.81µm. Efficient short pulse generation is achieved by utilising the relatively long lifetime of the upper laser level and the inherently linear polarized laser light of the Er:YLF crystal. By means of an acousto-optic switch, peak powers of 50kW with corresponding pulse widths of 70ns and pulse energies of 3.5mJ are realized at a repetition rate of 100Hz. The laser operates efficiently at room temperature and has a compact nature, enabling minimized thermal impact tissue ablation as well as pumping of non-linear crystals for mid-IR generation.