Passively mode-locked Nd:YAP 1340nm laser with V:YAG saturable absorber

Crystals of Yttrium-Aluminum Garnet (YAG) doped with three-valence vanadium V3+ in tetrahedral position suggest e_cient passive absorber for lasers operating in range 1100 { 1400 nm. V3+:YAG is a hard and durable material which has good thermal conductivity, is chemically stable, and capable of being grown to very high quality. This solid state saturable absorber has high damage threshold and it can operate without optical degradation. The Q-switching and mode-locking has been obtained with a number of active media such as Nd:YAG, Nd:KGW, Nd:YVO4 under ash-lamp and laser diode pumping in last ten years. We reported output improvement of the Nd:YAP (Yttrium-Aluminum Perovskite) ash-lamp pumped laser passively mode-locked with the V3+:YAG crystal. Laser has been operating at wavelength 1340 nm. Special_nishing of all surfaces was used to avoid operation at 1080 nm. Low-level transmission of V3+:YAG crystal was 28%. The optimal output coupler reectivity was 60%. With pumping energy 100 J stable generation of a single train of pulses was achieved with repetition rate 5 Hz. Length of the pulse train was 17 ns (FWHM); a single pulse was shorter than 1 ns. Energy at whole train of pulses 53 mJ was obtained what corresponds to peak power 2 MW.