Diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers in Q-switched and cavity-dumped Q-switched operation.

We present the first study of Q-switched Alexandrite lasers under continuous-wave diode-pumping with operation up to 10 kHz repetition rates in TEM00, with spatial quality M2 1.15. With a pulsed-diode dual-end-pumped design, pulse energy is scaled to a record level of 3 mJ. We also demonstrate, for the first time, cavity-dumped Q-switching of diode-pumped Alexandrite lasers under continuous-wave and pulsed diode-pumping, up to 10 kHz. Pulse energy of 510 μJ is demonstrated with 3 ns pulse duration and 170 kW peak power, in TEM00 with M2 < 1.2. Second harmonic generation of the cavity-dumped Q-switched pulses was used to generate UV wavelength 379 nm with conversion efficiency of 47%.

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