Passively Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic laser with V3+:YAG saturable absorber at 1357 nm

1357 nm single-wavelength continuous-wave and passively V3+:YAG Q-switched Nd:YAG ceramic crystal lasers have been experimentally demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. The output power of the continuous-wave laser was as high as 2.4 W under the incident pump power of 14.8 W. The corresponding optical to optical efficiency was about 16.2% and the slope efficiency was about 18.6%. The Q-switched laser remained single-wavelength output with a maximum average output power of 628 mW at the incident pump power of 12.4 W. The corresponding pulse width was 21 ns and the repetition frequency was 15 kHz. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America