Nd:YAG single-crystal fiber as power amplifier of pulses below one nanosecond

Igor Martial (1) , François Balembois (2) , Julien Didierjean (1) , Patrick Georges (2)

1 Fibercryst
2 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Elsa

We explore the potential of Nd:YAG single-crystal fibers for the amplification of passively Q-switched microlasers operating below 1 ns. Different regimes are tested in single or double pass configurations. For high gain and high power amplification this novel gain medium provided average powers up to 20 W at high repetition rate (over 40 kHz) for a pulse duration of 1 ns. As an energy amplifier, Nd:YAG single-crystal fiber delivered 2.7 mJ, 6 MW 450 ps pulses at 1 kHz. The extraction efficiencies vary from 8% to 32.7% following the configurations.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Igor Martial, François Balembois, Julien Didierjean, Patrick Georges. Nd:YAG single-crystal fiber as power amplifier of pulses below one nanosecond. Optics Express, 2011, 19 (12), pp.11667-11679. ⟨10.1364/OE.19.011667⟩. ⟨hal-00819340⟩