Diode pumped actively Q-switched Nd:YVO4self-Raman laser

By using Nd:YVO 4 as the gain medium and the Raman medium simultaneously, the actively Q-switched operation of the self-Raman Nd:YVO 4 laser at 1176 nm was realized. The output characteristics including the average power, pulse energy and pulse width versus the incident pump power and pulse repetition rate were investigated. At a pulse repetition rate of 20 kHz an average power up to 0.57 W was obtained with the incident pump power of 10.2 W, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 5.6% with respect to the diode laser input power. Meanwhile, an analysis of the self-Raman Nd:YVO 4 laser was carried out by using the rate equations. The obtained theoretical results were in agreement with the experimental results on the whole.