Giant laser radiation pulses from erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet crystals

Abstract

An investigation was made of the lasing properties of Q-switched YAG:Er3+ crystals (4I11/2–4I13/2). An energy of 100 mJ was obtained in the TEM00 mode and the pulse duration was 65 nsec. Under free-lasing conditions, the efficiency was 1.25% and the output radiation energy 5 J. The radiation parameters were strongly influenced by the Stark splitting of the 4I11/2 and 4I13/2 active levels.