Diode-end-pumped electro-optically Q-switched Nd:YLF slab laser

We report a very compact Nd:YLF slab laser that is end pumped by a quasi-continuous-wave diode stack. A hybrid resonator is used to generate high output power in a near-diffraction-limited beam (i.e., a beam propogation M2 factor of less than 1.2). A pulse energy of 14.3 mJ was obtained with a pulse width of 8.5 ns at a repetition rate of 500 Hz, which corresponds to a Q-switched peak power of 1.68 MW.