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High stable electro-optical cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser

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2012 Laser Phys. Lett. 9 561
(http://iopscience.iop.org/1612-202X/9/8/003)
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Laser Physics
Letters

Laser Phys. Lett. 9, No. 8, 561563 (2012) / DOI 10.7452/lapl.201210041

40

Eth = 2.4 J
E max = 40 mJ

35

Output pulse energy, mJ

Abstract: In this paper, an electro-optical cavity-dumped

10 Hz Nd:Y3 Al5 O12 (Nd:YAG) laser was demonstrated. We
designed an optimized high stable concavo-convex cavity according to the thermal-insensitive theory that the cavity could
be deep stable and be insensitive to the change of thermal
lens of laser crystal when g1 g2 = 1/2. The output pulse width
was constant at 6.00.1 ns. The maximum output energy was
40 mJ. The laser had outstanding stability of output characteristics. The fluctuations of average output energy and divergence
angle within 8 cycles were 1.24% and 0.06 mrad, respectively.

561

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2

Electrical enegry, J

Output pulse energy as a function of electrical pump energy

c 2012 by Astro, Ltd.

High stable electro-optical cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser

Y.F. Ma, 1,2 J.W. Zhang, 3, H. Li, 4 and X. Yu 1
1

National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Tunable Laser, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
3
College of Electromechanical Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
4
South-west Institute of Technical Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
2

Received: 3 April 2011, Revised: 11 April 2012, Accepted: 17 April 2012

Published online: 11 June 2012

Key words: high stable; concavo-convex cavity; cavity-dumped

1. Introduction
1.06 m pulse lasers are widely used in various fields, such
as laser ranging, remote sensing, microsurgery [1,2]. In the
past years a large variety of Q-switching methods have
been invented [36]. However, it is difficult for conventional Q-switched laser to obtain stable short nanosecond
pulses because its pulse width is variable and it depends
on the gain of laser medium, the transmission of the output
coupler, and the laser operating repetition rate. As a comparison, cavity-dumping operation can output short pulses
with constant width, which is determined by the opening
time of dumping apparatus and the cavity length [79].

Laser output stability is important for actual applications. However, the frequently used laser resonators are
often found to be sensitive to a small change of thermal
lens effect of laser crystal [10]. But when the parameter
of laser resonator g1 g2 = 1/2, the resonator is deep stable
and is insensitive to the change of thermal lens effect [11].
In this paper, we demonstrated an electro-optical
cavity-dumped 10 Hz Nd:Y3 Al5 O12 (Nd:YAG) laser using an optimally designed high stable concavo-convex cavity. The pulse width remained constant at 6.00.1 ns. The
maximum output energy was 40 mJ. The laser had outstanding stability of output characteristics. The fluctua-

Corresponding author: e-mail: zhangjiawei nefu@126.com

c 2012 by Astro, Ltd.

Laser Physics
Letters

Y.F. Ma, J.W. Zhang, et al.: High stable electro-optical cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser

p-polarization

s-polarization

40

Pocket
cell

Polarizer

TFP
M1

R1

R2
Flash-lamp
power supply

Eth = 2.4 J
E max = 40 mJ

35

Nd:YAG

M2

DC high
voltage

Figure 1 (online color at www.lasphys.com) Schematic of the

experimental setup of cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser

Output pulse energy, mJ

562

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2

-200

R1, mm

Electrical enegry, J
-300

0.8

-400

0.6

-500

Figure 3 (online color at www.lasphys.com) Output pulse energy as a function of electrical pump energy

0.4

-600
0.2
-700
0

3. Experimental results

-800
-0.2

-900
-1000
400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

R2, mm

Figure 2 (online color at www.lasphys.com) Value of g1 g2

varies with radii of curvature of R1 and R2

tions of average output energy and divergence angle within

8 cycles were 1.24% and 0.06 mrad, respectively.

2. Experimental setup and numerical

calculation
The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The mirrors
M1 and M2 were both coated for high reflection (HR)
at 1064 nm. The Nd:YAG crystal had a 1.0 at.% Nd3+
concentration with a 60 mm length. A thin-film polarizer
(TFP) was used. The Pockels cell was made from LiNbO3
crystal. The opening time of the Q-switch was 6.0 ns. The
cavity length was 200 mm.
The value of g1 g2 varying with radii of curvature of
R1 and R2 at a certain pump energy is showed in Fig. 2. In
this figure, different color area represents different value of
g1 g2 . M1 and M2 with radii of curvature R1 = 500 mm
and R2 = 1000 mm were chosen respectively to make sure
g1 g2 = 1/2 therefore to realize a high stable laser.

c 2012 by Astro, Ltd.

In the cavity-dumped operation, during the pump pulse,

the horizontally polarized beam (p-polarization mode) was
transmitted by the TFP, therefore the optical feedback
was prevented. Upon reaching peak energy storage in the
Nd:YAG crystal, the Pockels cell was biased to its /2
voltage. The vertically polarized radiation (s-polarization
mode) was reflected by the TFP to the HR mirrors M1 and
M2 , and a high Q was established in the resonator. This
resulted in the low loss of the resonator and the intracavity
laser pulse would be built up between the two HR mirrors
M1 and M2 . When this intracavity Q-switched pulse has
reached its maximum intensity, the /2 voltage was removed; therefore the output coupling is switched again to
100%, allowing the whole intracavity energy to be dumped
out from the TFP within one cavity round trip. So the oscillation mode was in s-polarization and the output mode was
in p-polarization. This operation allows the production of
pulses that are completely defined by the cavity length and
the opening time of dumping apparatus [12].
The electro-optically cavity-dumped laser was at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The output pulse energy as a function
of electrical pump energy is shown in Fig. 3. The maximum energy of 40 mJ was obtained when the electrical
pump energy was 8.1 J. The pump threshold was 2.4 J.
The laser was operated for 8 cycles. Each cycle consisted of a 60-seconds working time and a 60-seconds
rest time. The average output pulse energy within 8 cycles is shown in Fig. 4a. Because laser with an optimized
concavo-convex cavity is insensitive to the thermal lens
effect of laser crystal, the cavity was high stable and the
fluctuation of average output pulse energy within 8 cycles
was really very small and it was about 1.24%.

www.lasphys.com

Laser Physics
Letters

Average output energy, mJ

Laser Phys. Lett. 9, No. 8 (2012)

42

Constant pulse width of 6.00.1 ns was obtained under the cavity-dumped operation. One pulse profile of
6.0 ns is shown in Fig. 5.

(a)
41

40

4. Conclusion
39

In conclusion, we have demonstrated an electro-optical

cavity-dumped 10 Hz Nd:YAG laser. We designed an optimized high stable concavo-convex cavity according to the
thermal-insensitive theory that the cavity could be deep
stable and be insensitive to the thermal lens of laser crystal when g1 g2 = 1/2. The output pulse width remained
constant at 6.00.1 ns. The maximum output energy was
40 mJ. The laser had excellent stability of output characteristics. The fluctuations of average output energy and divergence angle within 8 cycles were 1.24% and 0.06 mrad,
respectively. It was developed up to practical application
level.

38
0

Cycles
3.4

Divergence angle, mrad

563

(b)
3.3

3.2

3.1

3.0
0

Cycles

References

Figure 4 (online color at www.lasphys.com) The average output

pulse energy and divergence angle within 8 cycles

Normalized intensity, a.u.

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

10

15

20

25

Time, ns

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31, 3303 (2006).

Figure 5 (online color at www.lasphys.com) Pulse profile of the

cavity-dumped Nd:YAG laser with the pulse width of 6.0 ns

The laser divergence angle was measured using the

pinhole method. Due to the high stable characteristic of
the optimized concavo-convex cavity, the beam divergence
angle fluctuated slightly. The fluctuation was 0.06 mrad
within 8 cycles, as shown in Fig. 4b.

www.lasphys.com

c 2012 by Astro, Ltd.