Short pulse, diode pumped, passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at 946 nm quadrupled for UV production

Abstract

We report on a compact UV-laser with a short pulse length of 1.9 ns at 236 nm. A passively Q-switched quasi-three-level Nd:YAG laser at 946 nm acts as the pump source. UV pulses are produced by two consecutive single-pass frequency doubling events, the first one from IR to blue with a BIBO crystal and the second one from blue to deep-UV with a β-BBO crystal. Conversion efficiency from 946 nm to 473 nm is 28% and from blue to UV 7%. Average power for UV is 7.6 mW with a energy and peak power of 230 nJ, and 120 W respectively.

Keywords

• solid state lasers
• passively q-switched lasers
• quasi-three-level lasers
• uv-lasers
• nonlinear optics