Stokes pulse energy of Q-switched lasers with intracavity Raman conversion

We derive the analytical expressions for the output Stokes pulse energy extracted from Q-switched lasers with intracavity Raman conversion. It has been shown that the problem of Stokes-pulse-energy optimization in Q-switched lasers is closely related to the optimization of intracavity photon-number density at a fundamental frequency in such lasers without the intracavity Raman conversion, although it has been found that at fixed laser parameters there is an optimum value of the cavity-mirror reflectivity at a Stokes frequency that maximizes the output Stokes pulse energy. These results have been applied for the Stokes-pulse-energy optimization of microchip solid-state lasers. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.