Comparison of RTP electro-optic Q-switch and acousto-optic Q-switch in Tm, Ho:GdVO₄ laser

In this paper, we demonstrated the comparison of acousto-optic (AO) Q-switch and RTP electrooptic (EO) Q-switch in Tm (5 at %), Ho (0.5 at %): GdVO₄ laser at different pulse repetition rate. At relatively low repetition rate (300 Hz, 500 Hz, and 1 kHz), AO Q-switch and RTP EO Q-switch operation performed similarly to each other. Up to 1.7 mJ with pulse width of 28 ns and 17.2 ns was achieved under pump power of 6.96 and 8.87 W in RTP EO Q-switch mode and AO Q-switch mode, respectively. At 10 kHz, the pulse width of EO Q-switch scheme was narrower than that of AO Q-switch scheme. At the pump power of 8.87 W, the pulse width of 85 and 110 ns was achieved in EO Q-switch and AO Q-switch, corresponding to the peak power of 2.6 and 1.6 kW, respectively. The hold-off capability of RTP EO Q-switch was better than that of AO Q-switch at high pulse repetition rate.