Q-switched Tm, Ho:GdVO4 laser with high pulse repetition frequency

CW and Q-switched operation of Tm, Ho:GdVO4 laser is reported in this paper. The Tm,Ho:GdVO4 crystal is cooled by liquid nitrogen and end-pumped by a laser diode of 793nm. Output power of 4.0 W and optical-to-optical efficiency of 26% is achieved at CW mode. With acousto-optically Q-switched operation, an average power 3.9 W of at a pulse-repetition rate of 10 kHz with pulse duration of 50ns is obtained. The pulse width is tunable from 23 ns to 50 ns by changing rf(radio frequency) off-time of AO Q-switch. At a pulse-repetition rate of 10 kHz, 0.39 mJ of pulse energy, and 7.8 kW of peak power were measured