Enhancement of passive Q-switching performance with mixed Nd:LuxGd1-xVO4 laser crystals

Passive Q-switching operation has been demonstrated with a class of mixed Nd: LuxGd1-xVO4 laser crystals. With respect to that obtained with Nd:GdVO4, the passive Q-switching performance, including threshold, pulse energy, and peak power, was found to be greatly enhanced with the mixed vanadate crystals. The shortest pulse width of 6.2 ns, largest pulse energy of 192.5 mu J, and highest peak power of 31.1 kW were obtained at the incident pump power of 13.75 W with the mixed crystal for x = 0.5. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.