The potential of Yb:YCa4O(BO3)3 crystal in generating high-energy laser pulses

The passive Q-switching laser performance of Yb:YCa4O(BO3)(3) is studied with crystals cut along the principal optical axes. Using a Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber with initial transmission of 93.7% and an output coupler of transmission of 40%, efficient Q-switched laser operation is achieved with a X-cut crystal, generating an output power of 2.14 W at a pulse repetition rate of 4.5 kHz. The resulting laser pulse is 9.3 ns in duration, with the energy being as high as 476 mu J and the peak power amounting to 51.2 kW. The results demonstrated in this work reveal the great potential of this crystal in developing high-energy compact pulsed lasers. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America