Diode-pumped Alexandrite ring laser for LIDAR applications

We present design and performance data of a diode-pumped Q-switched Alexandrite ring laser in the millijoule regime, which is longitudinally pumped by laser diode bar modules in the red spectral range. As a first step, a linear resonator was designed and characterized in qcw operation as well as in Q-switched operation. Based on these investigations, two separate linear cavities were set up, each with one Alexandrite crystal longitudinally pumped by one diode module. The two cavities are fused together and form a ring cavity which yields up to 6 mJ pulse burst energy in the qcw regime at 770 nm.