Abstract
The finite recovery time of the bleached absorber is presented as one of the possible mechanisms accounting for the increase–maximum–decrease in pulse energy E with the pumping rate in cw-pumped passively Q-switched solid-state lasers, by analytically evaluating the sign of the derivative . The results show that, in the low pump regime (, T is the interpulse period), the initial population density remains constant, the final population density decreases with , and this results in a monotonic increase of E with . In the high pump regime , decreases but remains the same with ; this results in a monotonic decrease of E with . At the critical region , E reaches its maximum value. A cw-pumped laser passively Q switched by a absorber is demonstrated to confirm this model. The theoretical model is also applied to the analysis of three previously reported passive Q switching solid-state [, , and ] lasers experiments.
© 2006 Optical Society of America
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