Pulse high energy Fe: ZnSe laser pumped by Q-switched Er: YAG laser

Abstract

We report a pulse Fe: ZnSe laser pumped by an optical chopper Q-switched Er: YAG laser. By analyzed the spatial and temporal match of the gain and chopper, the maximum energy of the optical chopper Q-switched Er: YAG laser is 31mJ with the pulse width of 165 ns. By employing this Er: YAG laser as pump laser of Fe: ZnSe crystal, the maximum output energy of Fe: ZnSe laser is 10mJ with the pulse width of 80 ns at room temperature, that is the maximum energy of Fe: ZnSe laser at this Q-switched system to the best of our knowledge. We also study the directly Q-switched Fe: ZnSe laser, and the 2.7mJ mid-infrared laser with the pulse width of 200 ns is obtained at 80 K.