A laser diode partially end-pumped, electro-optically Q-switched, Yb:Y₃Al₅O₁₂ (Yb:YAG) slab laser was reported. We obtained output energy of 14.6 mJ/pulse with a pulse width of 30 ns at a repetition frequency of 2 kHz, and the corresponding peak power was 480 kW. The beam quality factors M² in the unstable direction and the stable direction was 1.32 and 1.25, respectively.

We examined a 1514 nm eye-safe passively Q-switched self-optical parametric oscillator. The nonlinear crystal is an a-cut Nd:MgO:PPLN crystal, and the size of the crystal was 6 mm × 2 mm × 30 mm with 0.4 at.% Nd³⁺ doped and a grating period of 29.8 μm. When the crystal absorbed 12.8 W, the output maximum single-pulse energy reached 39 μJ, and a pulse width of 6.1 ns at a repetition rate of 5.4 kHz was obtained. The peak power was 6 kW, giving a slope efficiency of 42%.

An external frequency doubling electro-optically Q-switched neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) 473 nm blue laser was demonstrated. With absorbed pump energy of 48 mJ at 100 Hz repetition rate, about 2 mJ of 473 nm blue laser pulse energy was achieved by cascade frequency doubling. The second harmonic conversion efficiency was 64.5%, and overall optical-optical efficiency was 4.2%, respectively. The blue laser pulse width was less than 10 ns, and beam quality factor was less than 2.4.

The excitation of high-order Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) modes in a neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser resonator was presented by applying the diffraction of a second-order circular Dammann grating (CDG) for annular pumping. In the study, the 808 nm pump light was shaped into a double-ring structure by the CDG and matched spatially with that of an ideal LG₁₁ mode. As a result, the laser resonator generated an LG₁₁ vortex mode, and the laser power reached 204 mW with 14.5% slope efficiency. Also, when the cavity mirror was tilted, the laser output could switch to the LG₀₁ vortex mode. The results showed the convenience and versatility of CDG in an annular-pumped vortex laser.

Praseodymium-ion-doped gain materials have the superiority of lasing at various visible wavelengths directly. Simple and compact visible lasers are booming with the development of blue laser diodes in recent years. In this Letter, we demonstrate the watt-level red laser with a single blue laser diode and Pr:YLiF₄ crystal. On this basis, the passively Q-switched pulse lasers are obtained with monolayer graphene and Co:ZnO thin film as the Q-switchers in the visible range.

In this Letter, a 116-actuator deformable mirror (DM) was used to correct the wavefront distortion in a 10.7 J, 10 Hz neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) slab amplifier. By applying a pump-light homogenizer to transform the 3 × 1 near-field beam array into an integrated beam, the beam quality was greatly improved from 5.54 times diffraction limit (TDL) to 1.57 TDL after being corrected by the DM. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation on beam quality control of an arrayed near-field beam in high-energy diode-pumped solid-state lasers.

Gold nanorods (GNRs) with two different aspect ratios were successfully utilized as saturable absorbers (SAs) in a passively Q-switched neodymium-doped lutetium lithium fluoride (Nd:LLF) laser emitting at 1.34 μm. Based on the GNRs with an aspect ratio of five, a maximum output power of 1.432 W was achieved, and the narrowest pulse width was 328 ns with a repetition rate of 200 kHz. But, in the case of the GNRs with the aspect ratio of eight, a maximum output power of 1.247 W was achieved, and the narrowest pulse width was 271 ns with a repetition rate of 218 kHz. Our experimental results reveal that the aspect ratios of GNRs have different saturable absorption effects at a specific wavelength. In other words, for passively Q-switched lasers at a given wavelength, we are able to select the most suitable GNRs as an SA by changing their aspect ratio.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted intense attention in photonics and optoelectronics for their excellent nonlinear characteristics and are applied for the generation of laser pulses. Here, an active–passive Nd:GdVO41.3 μm laser is realized by using an acousto-optic modulator and gold nanobipyramids absorber. The pulse width of 150.5 ns is obtained in the doubly Q-switched laser. The compression ratio and enhancement time are 82.6% and 16. The doubly Q-switched technology compresses the pulse width, improves the peak power, and stabilizes the pulse, illustrating that double modulation technology opens the door of controllable ultrafast lasers based on 2D materials.

We report on diode-pumped Er:Y2O3 ceramic lasers at about 2.7 μm in the tunable continuous-wave, self-Q-switching and tungsten disulfide (WS2)-based passively Q-switching regimes. For stable self-Q-switched operation, the maximum output power reaches 106.6 mW under an absorbed power of 2.71 W. The shortest pulse width is measured to be about 1.39 μs at a repetition rate of 26.7 kHz at maximum output. Using a spin-coated WS2 as a saturable absorber, a passively Q-switched Er:Y2O3 ceramic laser is also realized with a maximum average output power of 233.5 mW (for the first time, to the best of our knowledge). The shortest pulse width decreases to 0.72 μs at a corresponding repetition rate of 29.4 kHz, which leads to a pulse energy of 7.92 μJ and a peak power of 11.0 W. By inserting an undoped YAG thin plate as a Fabry–Perot etalon, for the passive Q switching, wavelength tunings are also demonstrated at around 2710, 2717, 2727, and 2740 nm.

In this Letter, the loss and gain characteristics of an unconventional InxGa1 xAs/GaAs asymmetrical step well structure consisting of variable indium contents of InxGa1 xAs materials are measured and analyzed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. This special well structure is formed based on the indium-rich effect from the material growth process. The loss and gain are obtained by optical pumping and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum measurement at dual facets of an edge-emitting device. Unlike conventional quasi-rectangle wells, the asymmetrical step well may lead to a hybrid strain configuration containing both compressive and tensile strains and, thus, special loss and gain characteristics. The results will be very helpful in the development of multiple wavelength InGaAs-based semiconductor lasers.