A Cr:YAG crystal was used as a saturable absorber for passive Q-switching of a Nd:YVO4 laser which was pumped by a 1-W continuous wave laser diode. The first surface of the Cr:YAG was high-reflection coated for the pump wavelength. The high-reflection coating improved the absorption efficiency of the pump beam in the Nd:YVO4 through double pass absorption. It also prevented pump beam induced partial bleaching of the Cr:YAG. The peak-to-peak pulse fluctuation of passively Q-switched laser output was approximately 4 %. The minimum pulse-width was measured to be 7.11 ns. Also, the average pulse repetition rate was 9 kHz and the maximum output power was 16.27 mW.
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