Acta Photonica Sinica, Volume. 47, Issue 5, 514001(2018)

High-repetition-rate LiNbO3 Electro-optic Q-switched Nd∶YVO4 Laser

SHANG Ji-fang1,2,3、*, SUN Jun1,2,3, LI Qing-lian1,2,3, WU Jing1,2,3, ZHANG Ling1,2,3, DOU Fei-fei4, DONG Chao-yong4, and XU Jing-jun2,3
Author Affiliations
  • 1[in Chinese]
  • 2[in Chinese]
  • 3[in Chinese]
  • 4[in Chinese]
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    With a LiNbO3 crystal as the electro-optic Q-switch, a compact Q-switched laser with a high repetition rate and a narrow pulse width was developed. The crystal was sandwiched between two crossed polarizers, then the variation of the laser transmitted intensity with the pulsed high voltage applied to the crystal was measured to investigate the piezoelectric ringing effects in LiNbO3 crystals with different dimensions. Additionally, the piezoelectric ringing effects in LiNbO3 crystals were compared with that of a RbTiOPO4 crystal. The results show that the block LiNbO3 crystal suffers enormously from piezoelectric ringing, while the piezoelectric ringing in the miniaturized LiNbO3 crystal is similar to that of the RbTiOPO4 crystal and is negligible. Combining with the piezoelectric effect theory, it is derived that the acoustic ringing is influenced by the applied voltage and the piezoelectric resonance frequency, the acoustic ringing decreases with the decreasing of applied voltage and the increasing of piezoelectric resonance frequency. Based on these results, a miniaturized LN electro-optic Q-switch that can operate at a high repetition rate was prepared, its dimensions is 1.2 mm×9 mm×9.4 mm. The miniature LN crystal was successfully used for high repetition rate electro-optic Q-switching. A Nd∶YVO4 crystal possessing a large emission cross-section and a short fluorescence lifetime was used as the gain medium. One side of the Nd∶YVO4 crystal was high-reflection coated at 1 064 nm, and another side was cut along the Brewster angle, then a reflecting mirror and a polarizer was saved and the cavity length was shortened. The pump source was a fiber-coupled laser diode with a central wavelength of 808 nm. Based on the above design, a compact cavity with a length of only 20 mm was achieved. In the pulse-off Q-switching operation, a stable pulsed laser operating at a maximum repetition rate of 15 kHz with a pulse width of 5.4 ns and a peak power of 2.94 kW was obtained.

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    SHANG Ji-fang, SUN Jun, LI Qing-lian, WU Jing, ZHANG Ling, DOU Fei-fei, DONG Chao-yong, XU Jing-jun. High-repetition-rate LiNbO3 Electro-optic Q-switched Nd∶YVO4 Laser[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2018, 47(5): 514001

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    Paper Information

    Received: Nov. 1, 2017

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Sep. 7, 2018

    The Author Email: Ji-fang SHANG (shangjifang@mail.nankai.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.3788/gzxb20184705.0514001

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