Investigations on continuous-wave and passively Q-switched Nd:LuAG ceramic lasers at eye-safe wavelengths.

We report comparative studies on diode-pumped eye-safe Nd:LuAG ceramic lasers at 1.4 μm spectral region in continuous-wave regime. Six differently doped samples have been used to experimentally determine the optimized laser results. A maximum output power of 1.78 W is achieved with simultaneous dual-wavelength laser emission at 1418 and 1442 nm, which is believed the highest output power of Nd:LuAG ceramic at this specific wavelength. Using a V 3+ :YAG as saturable absorber, passively Q-switched Nd:LuAG ceramic laser is also realized, for the first time to our knowledge, with maximum average output power of 0.58 W and pulse width of about 34 ns at pulse repetition rate of 11.91 kHz, which lead to pulse energy of 49.3 μJ and pulse peak power of 1.43 kW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]