LD-pumped acousto-optic Q-switched Pr:YLF pulsed laser at 604 nm

We demonstrated an actively acousto-optic Q-switched pulsed laser based on Pr:YLF at 604 nm. A 604 nm continuous-wave (CW) laser with a maximum output power of 3.84 W was achieved for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The Q-switched laser with a maximum average output power of 0.384 W, a narrowest pulse duration of 44.5 ns, a maximum single pulse energy of 64.1 mu J, and a maximum peak power of similar to 1.44 kW was obtained at a repetition rate of 6 kHz. As far as we know, this was the first report of such a narrow pulse duration, high-power, and high-energy Q-switched pulsed laser at 604 nm. The beam quality factors M-x(2) and M-y(2) were measured to be 2.87 and 2.40, respectively. The results show that acousto-optic Q-switching is a promising method for obtaining pulsed lasers.