Passively Q-switched VCSEL-pumped Nd:YAG laser with 47 mJ pulse energy

A compact passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was end-pumped by a water-cooled 808 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) pump module comprising four high power, high brightness VCSEL chips with a combined 10 mm diameter circular emitting area and 2.3 kW total peak power, resulting in 47 mJ laser pulse energy at 1064 nm with 16% optical efficiency at 15 Hz repetition frequency. A laser package comprising an air-cooled 1.6 kW VCSEL pump module produced 37 mJ laser pulse energy, while more than 13 mJ laser pulse energy was demonstrated in a bench-top experiment with a very compact laser set-up using a single 5 mm x 5 mm VCSEL chip.