Temporal and kinetic studies of chromium forsterite oscillators with 1064 nm laser excitation

Temporal characteristics and kinetics of the gain-switched operation of a chromium forsterite oscillator are presented for fundamental Nd:YAG laser excitation. Three temporal excitation regions have been studied with the pump laser running in fixed Q and Q-switched modes. Measured temporal behaviour as well as threshold and efficiency measurements are compared with results obtained using 532 and 732 nm excitation. The laser performance of three different chromium forsterite crystals is compared. A threshold of 0.04 J and a slope efficiency of 26% have been measured for one crystal. In one case, 10 ns gain-switched pulses were emitted with a 35 ns delay from the pump pulse, the shortest yet reported with a simple chromium forsterite laser system.