Optical performance of Cr:YSO Q-switched Cr:LiCAF and Cr:LiSAF lasers

Both Cr:LiCAF and Cr:LiSAF solid state lasers were developed by Payne et al. As transition-metal vibronic lasers the Cr:LiCAF and Cr:LiSAF exhibit broad emission spectra, long lifetime of the upper laser levels, low nonlinear refractive indices, low thermal lensing, and low excited state absorption that make both of them unique sources for tunable or short pulse lasers. In previous work we had experimentally demonstrated that the Cr:YSO could work as a saturable absorber Q switch for the Cr:LiCAF laser near 780 nm, i.e., the peak of its tuning range. In this work, we theoretically investigate the optical performance of the Cr:YSO Q-switched Cr:LiCAF laser system over its entire tuning range by solving the coupled rate equations. The simulation results indicate that the results obtained numerically are in good agreement with that obtained experimentally. The theoretical simulation also shows that the Cr:YSO may be used as an effective saturable absorber Q switch for the tunable Cr:LiCAF laser over a major portion of its entire tuning range from 725 nm to 840 nm. On the other hand, the Cr:YSO had also been experimentally demonstrated to be an effective saturable absorber Q switch for the tunable Cr:LiSAF laser by Munin et al. The optical performance of the Cr:YSO Q-switched Cr:LiCAF and Cr:LiSAF lasers is numerically studied in this paper.