A c-cut Nd:GdVO4 solid-state laser passively Q-switched with Co2+:LaMgAl11O19 lasing at 1.34 μm

We investigated a high power diode-laser pumped passively Q-switched c-cut Nd:GdVO4 solid-state laser, lasing at 1.34 μm, with a Co2+:LaMgAl11O19 saturable absorber. With the optimum output coupler transmission T=5.5% and pump power of 11.5 W, the static output power of 3.01 W was obtained. The passively Q-switching operation with Co:LMA (initial transmission T 0=90%) as saturable absorber, shows that the shortest output pulse width, the highest output power, the highest pulse repetition and the highest pulse peak power were 32 ns, 266 mW, 277 kHz, and 187 W, respectively.