Tunable garnet laser with electrooptic Q switching

A laser was constructed in which the active element was a Y₃Al₅O₁₂:Nd³⁺ crystal placed in a dispersive resonator. This crystal emitted tunable radiation as a result of the ⁴F_3/2→⁴I_11/2 (λ = 1.064 μ) and ⁴F_3/2→⁴I_13/2 (λ = 1.318, 1.338, and 1.356 μ) transitions when the Q factor of the resonator was modulated by an electrooptic lithium niobate switch. The energy and time characteristics of the emitted lines were determined. When the pumping threshold was exceeded by a factor of 3, the energy of the output pulses at λ = 1.318 μ was comparable with the energy of the λ = 1.064 μ pulses. The duration of the pulses increased from 10 nsec (for the first transition) to 40–45 nsec (for the ⁴F_3/2→⁴I_13/2 transition).