The 2.94 μm Er:YAG laser Q-switched mechanically by a rotating mirror was developed. The laser generated pulses of 30 mJ energy and duration below 290 ns, which corresponds to over 100 kW peak power. It operated at the repetition rate of up to 25 Hz. To our knowledge it is the most powerful erbium laser operating at so high repetition rate. The developed laser can be successfully applied in medicine -e.g. in microsurgery of soft biological tissues.Laser beam interaction with a gelatin sample

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The efficient Q-switched Ho:YAG hybrid laser resonantly pumped by a Tm:fiber (15 W CW @ 1908 nm) was developed. The performance of the laser was investigated for the operation both in free running and a Q-switching regime. The output power of 3.5 W continuous-wave (CW) for 10.2 W of incident pump power was reached at a wavelength of 2090.1 nm. In the Q-switching regime an acousto-optic modulator was applied. In the CW pumping regime the repetition rate was changed from 20 to 5000 Hz. For the best results, for a 20 Hz repetition rate, pulses of 2.5 mJ energy and 125 kW peak power were achieved. In this regime the shortest pulse of 19.07 ns FWHM was recorded. For the best case of Q-switching in a quasi-CW pumping regime (repetition rate of 20 Hz and a pulse width of 8 ms) the pulses of 127 kW peak power (2.8 mJ, 22 ns) were obtained.

The 2940 nm Er:YAG laser Q-switched mechanically by means of a rotating mirror was developed. It generated the output pulses of up to 30 mJ energy, below 300 ns duration and record repetition rate of 25 Hz. The developed laser was effectively used for the investigation of laser beam interaction with selected organic matter simulants.

We report for the first time laser action in resonantly-pumped transparent polycrystalline Er:YAG ceramic developed through a 2-step approach combining spark plasma sintering and HIP post treatment. Microstructural and spectroscopic properties, as well as the laser performance of large scale 0.5at.% Er:YAG transparent polycrystalline ceramic are discussed. A maximum slope efficiency of ∼31% and optical-optical efficiency of 20% was measured.