Diode-Pumped Actively Q-Switched Nd:Lu0.1Y0.9VO4 Laser at 1.34 μm

The continuous-wave (CW) and acoustooptic (AO) Q-switched 1.34 μm laser performance of Nd:Lu 0.1 Y 0.9 VO 4 crystals was demonstrated. In all operations, an $a$-cut crystal behaved better than a $c$-cut crystal. With a $T = 3.9$% output coupler, the maximum CW output power was 2 W, which corresponded to an optical conversion efficiency of 30.8%. At a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 5 kHz, the shortest pulse width, largest pulse energy, and highest peak power were 23.8 ns, 124 μJ, and 5.21 kW, respectively. As we have known, these are the best results obtained for a 1.34 μm pulsed laser based on mixed vanadate crystals.