A compact and less heat affected Nd:YAG laser with heat dissipation by natural convection solely

A theoretical and experimental investigation is conducted on a compact conductively cooled electro-optical Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and demonstrated less thermal effects and arelatively uniform laser beam spot in the laser. With the 10-minute operation duration and a pumping frequency of 10 Hz, we achieve output pulses with anoutput energy of 105mJ, a pulse width of 5.2 ns, anda peak power of 20.2 MW with heat dissipation by natural convection solely. Furthermore, the compact dimensions of 200*50*38 mm3 and the divergence angle of 0.93 mrad and 1.26 mrad in the X and Y directions can meet the miniaturization needs of laser rangefinder (LRF) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).