Repetition rate tunable single-longitudinal-mode acoustic-optical Q-switched nanosecond laser

Repetition rate-tunable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) lasers are in wide demand for light detection and ranging. This study proposes an SLM acoustic-optical Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser based on a short-cavity scheme. The laser system consists of a laser diode (LD) pump source, coupling optics, input mirror coupler (IC), Nd:YVO4 crystal, acousto-optic Q-switching system (AOQS), and output mirror coupler (OC). The mode selection is theoretically analyzed and confirmed from the experimental setup. The laser output obtains a 10 ns pulse duration, SLM with a linewidth of 279.43 MHz, and good stability that is maintained in the range of 1 to 4 kHz. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is a simple and robust source-laser scheme for high-power systems.