Intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped by passively Q-switched Nd:YLF laser

Abstract We report on a passively Q-switched end pumped Nd:YLF laser including a noncritically phase-matched KTP singly resonant intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO-KTP). For the Q-switching operation we have used Cr:YAG saturable absorber. The optimized passively Q-switched Nd:YLF laser without IOPO generated linearly polarized pulses of 11.5 ns and 1.07 mJ at 1047 nm. The conversion efficiency of the optimized Q-switched pulse energy at 1047 nm to 1547 nm of a signal approached about 47%. For optimizing both Nd:YLF laser and IOPO we have numerically solved a theoretical model. We have achieved 1.6-ns duration pulses at 1547 nm with energy of 0.5 mJ and peak power of above 300 kW. The beam quality was excellent (M2 ≈1).