The effects of temporal delay on the performance of an electro-optic Q-switched Nd:YAG laser

The performances of an electro optic Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at transition line of (F3/2 -> I11/2)-F-4-I-4 Stark level based on DKDP crystal is presented. The temporal delay time between the ignition of Xenon flashlamp and the Q-switched trigger signal is manipulated to determine the best performances of the Q-switched laser. The results shown that opening the Q-switching is dependent on the pumped energy. The higher the pumping energy the longer the temporal delay is desired to achieve the optimum output. However the temporal delay may remain constant if the laser is pumped with low energy. In general the performance of the Q-switched laser is found independently on the temporal delay, whereby all tested temporal delays almost have similar slope efficiency of 18%.