Control of the pulse width of a laser-diode end-pumped passively Q-switched solid-state laser

We theoretically and experimentally study different techniques to control the pulse width of a laser-diode-pumped passively Q-switched solid-state laser. It is shown that varying the laser beam radius in the saturable absorber and the pump beam radius in the gain medium provide an efficient means to control the pulse width. The experiments performed on a laser-diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser passively Q-switched by a Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber are consistent with the theoretical calculations obtained from the rate-equations model, in which the intracavity photon density is assumed to be Gaussian spatial distribution, and the longitudinal variation of the intracavity photon density and the pump beam spatial distribution are also considered.