Complex dynamics of passively Q-switched microchip laser

The laser-diode-pumped 1.5 mu m multimode passively Q-switched Er,Yb:YAl3(BO3)4 microchip laser with a saturable absorber of Co2+:MgAl2O4 was studied experimentally. The maxim repetition rate of 81.25 kHz was obtained with output energy of 2.99 mu J and pulse duration of 10.8 ns. The complex dynamics was found with the increase of pumping power: from 3 W to 9.4 W, five regions with complex multimode dynamics and five others with simple dynamics were found, and they appeared alternately. In the regions with multimode dynamics, the clear antiphase phenomenon of pulses with different modes was observed at the beginning, and then the dynamics of laser pulse train tends to be more complex. The phenomenon is very similar to the self-similarity of typical nonlinear dynamical systems.

Automated summary

The laser-diode-pumped 1.5 mu m multimode passively Q-switched Er,Yb:YAl3(BO3)4 microchip laser with a saturable absorber of Co2+:MgAl2O4 was experimentally studied. It was found that as the pumping power increased, the dynamics of the laser exhibited complex multimode behavior. In the multimode regions, an antiphase phenomenon of pulses with different modes was observed, and the dynamics of the laser pulse train became more complex, resembling the self-similarity of typical nonlinear dynamical systems.