Passively Q-switched 1617-nm polycrystalline ceramic Er:YAG laser using a Cr:ZnSe saturable absorber

We report on a passively Q-switched polycrystalline ceramic Er:YAG laser by using a Cr:ZnSe crystal as a saturable absorber. When pumped by a 1532-nm Er-, Yb-doped fiber laser with the maximum power of 12.4 W, the laser yielded pulses of 28.8 ns duration at 1617 nm by using a saturable absorber with an initial transmission of 80 %. The corresponding peak power was up to 11.3 kW at a repetition rate of 2.17 kHz. The dependence of the pulse duration and repetition rate on the pump power was experimentally studied. The numerical and experimental results both show that the pulse duration was mainly determined by the initial transmission of the saturable absorber and slightly affected by the transmission of the output coupler. At last, we give some prospects for further narrowing down the pulse duration.