Continuous-wave and Q-switched Tb:YLF lasers at 587 nm

We report what we believe to be the highest continuous-wave (CW) output power from a Tb:YLF (Tb 3+ :LiYF 4 ) laser at 587 nm, reaching up to 1 W, and the first actively Q-switched operation in the orange spectral region with output energy of 0.5 mJ in 100 ns pulses at 500 Hz. This represents progress toward a next-generation ozone differential absorption lidar (DIAL) laser source. Unstable behavior in CW operation is observed.