Eyesafe pulsed microchip laser using semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors

We passively Q-switched a diode-pumped Er/Yb:glass microchip laser at a 1.535 μm wavelength using semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors and demonstrated pulses as short as 1.2 ns. By varying the design parameters of the saturable absorber, the pump power, and the pump spot size, we achieved repetition rates from 300 Hz to 100 kHz with pulse energies up to 4 μJ.