Abstract

Recent advances in diode pumping technology¹ have made possible very compact and efficient kilowatt average power oscillators. However, only free lasing operating, with ≈100 µs long output pulses and peak powers in the few kilowatts range, has been previously reported.² Standard, single crystal electro-optic Q-switches generally exhibit severe thermally induced depolarization effects at average powers greater than −200 W/cm². Here we report on the performance and limitations of several thermally compensated Q-switch designs at average power densities of several kW/ cm².

© 1994 Optical Society of America