A compact diode-pumped pulsed Nd:YAG slab laser based on a master oscillator power amplifier configuration

In this paper, the design and construction of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser is described. The structure of this laser is based on a master oscillator power amplifier system. A master oscillator is an electro-optical Q-switched Nd:YAG rod laser. Face-pumping is used for the excitation of the slab structure, and a double-pass method is designed for the amplification stages. Two Nd:YAG zigzag slabs are utilized as power amplification stages in this laser. The laser diodes are stacked in a compact configuration and are used for rod and slabs pumping. The total pump energy in the amplifier stages is 3200 mJ at 808 nm. The output pulse energy achieved at 1064 nm is about 850 mJ of 10 ns pulse duration corresponding to 26.5% optical-to-optical conversion efficiency. Moreover, this laser can generate pulse energies around 430 mJ at 532 nm. The dependence of the output energy of MOPA and second harmonic generation operations on different pulse repetition rates (PRRs) from 1 to 100 Hz has been investigated. Experimental results show that the maximum fluctuations of the output energies are about 2.5 and 4% for 1064 and 532 nm, respectively.