Passively Q-switched laser operation in a composite Nd:YVO4/Nd:YVO4/Nd:YVO4 crystal with a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber

By using a piece of single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber, the performance of the passively Q-switched composite Nd:YVO 4 laser has been demonstrated for the first time. The maximum average output power and the shortest pulse width are 1220 mW and 103 ns at the incident pump power of 5.04 W for a 10% transmission of the output coupler. The highest pulse repetition rate of 415.6 kHz and the largest single-pulse energy of 2.94 μJ are also obtained. The composite Nd:YVO 4 crystal has more excellent laser performance than the normal Nd:YVO 4 crystal at 1064 nm. © 2012 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.