Abstract
Passive Q-switching of a diode-pumped a-cut Nd:YVO4 laser with Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber in a plano-concave cavity is experimentally studied. We find that, by adjusting the laser resonator to a nearly hemispherical geometry, stable and short Q-switched pulses can be obtained, though it has been theoretically predicted that the larger gain cross section of the laser crystal than absorption cross section of the absorber prevents good Q-switched operation for this laser, which is a failure to fulfil the second threshold condition. Success in achieving good Q-switched operation in this laser is connected with the occurrence of self-pulsation near the hemispherical resonator configuration. By using a concave mirror of 50 mm radius of curvature and pump power of 770 mW, stable laser pulses were obtained with pulse widths as short as 9.5 ns at a repetition rate of 10 kHz and peak power of 82 W.
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