Pulsed high-repetition rate diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser source with advanced ring Q-switch modulator

It has been experimentally shown that incorporation of the λ/4 phase plate into a cavity of the solid-state laser with the ring Q-switch modulator leads to an enhancement of the maximum achievable energy Emax of the output lasing pulses over a wide interval of the pulse repetition rate f. This is achieved by an improvement of the spatial phase distribution for two orthogonal polarization components formed in the laser cavity by the ring Q-switch modulator. These components transform into each other during every round trip of the laser cavity, thus forming the polarization ring cavity without appreciable hole burning effects. For the transversally diode pumped Nd:YAG laser source with the ring Q-switch modulator and λ/4 phase plate the output pulses with Emax ≈ 584–600 mJ were obtained in the range of f ~ 30–100 Hz at the excitation energy of 2.0–2.2 J.