Chromium Doped Y3Al5O12 Ceramics -- a Novel Saturable Absorber for Passively Self-Q-Switched One-Micron Solid State Lasers

We demonstrated a laser-diode pumped all ceramic passively self-Q-switched laser with Cr 4+ :Y 3 Al 5 O 12 ceramics as a saturable absorber and Nd 3+ :Y 3 Al 5 O 12 ceramics as a gain medium. A 190-W peak power was obtained with a 20-ns pulse duration and a 12-kHz repetition rate at ≈ 900-mW pumping power. The result indicates that Cr 4+ :Y 3 Al 5 O 12 single crystals can be replaced with more productive and cheaper Cr 4+ :Y 3 Al 5 O 12 ceramics for many practical solid-state one-micron lasers.