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We present a 50 μm Nd3+:YVO4 microchip laser that is passively Q-switched by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. To reduce handling problems caused by the small crystal dimensions, the 50 μm Nd3+:YVO4 crystal is optically bonded to an undoped YVO4 crystal of a length of about 500 μm. By using a saturable absorber mirror with an effective modulation depth of >10% the system is able to deliver 16 ps pulses at a repetition rate of up to 1.0 MHz. The average laser power is 16 mW at 1064 nm. To our knowledge these are the shortest Q-switched pulses ever reported from a solid-state laser. The limits in terms of pulse width, repetition rate, output power, and system stability are discussed. Additionally, continuous-wave behavior is analyzed. Experimental data is compared with the simulation results of the coupled rate equations.

The design of the CAPE I satellite has been underway for approximately three years. This project is an interdisciplinary project that incorporates electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineering as well as computer science and physics. The project hopes to teach students how to design, develop and maintain a lower earth orbiting satellite. In fact, this satellite was delivered to San Luis Obispo, California on December 5, 2006 where it passed the final integration test in order to qualify for launch. After qualification, the satellite was loaded into the poly picosatellite orbital deployer or P-POD, which is the deployment system for the satellite. The P-POD holds three CubeSats. Once all three satellites were integrated, it was delivered to Kazakhstan and loaded into the DNEPR Russian Rocket on March 17, 2007. After a few delays, the rocket was launched on April 17, 2007. The team is currently monitoring and decoding the CW beacons transmitted by the satellite.The project was broken down into several subsystems including mechanical, communications, control and data handling, and power. Each of the systems proved to have their own unique challenges. Being that the majority of the team was electrical engineering students; the mechanical subsystem presented the most difficulty.

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