Open AccessPassive Q-switching characteristics of Yb3+:Gd3Ga5O12 crystal
Author(s) -
Xingyu Zhang,
A. Brenier,
Qingpu Wang,
Zhengping Wang,
Jun Chang,
Ping Li,
Shaojun Zhang,
Shou-Nian Ding,
Shutao Li
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/opex.13.007708
Subject(s) - saturable absorption , optics , materials science , q switching , laser , absorption (acoustics) , beam (structure) , rate equation , crystal (programming language) , output coupler , pulse (music) , fiber laser , physics , quantum mechanics , detector , computer science , kinetics , programming language
The passively Q-switched laser characteristics of a quasi-three level Yb3+:Gd3Ga5O12 (Yb3+:GGG) crystal with Cr4+:YAG saturable absorbers are studied experimentally and theoretically. The pulse parameters under different experimental conditions are measured. Some characteristics different from those of a four-level system are found. In the theoretical aspect, taking into account the spatial distributions of the pump light and intracavity laser mode, the rate equations describing the single Q-switched pulse characteristics of a quasi-three-level system are obtained. The obtained theoretical results are in fair agreement with the experimental results. Some topics such as the influence of the pumping power, the selection of the pump beam size, the optimal combination of output coupler reflectivity and saturable absorber initial transmission, the influence of the excited absorption of the saturable absorber, are discussed.