A powerful, repetitively pulsed 1444-nm Nd:YAG laser

A powerful, repetitively pulsed 1444-nm Nd:YAG laser is studied. It is shown that the efficiency of this laser is mainly limited by the absorption at 1444 nm in the active element, the UV radiation of the pump lamps, the lasing at the internal mode frequencies of the active elements, and the amplified luminescence at 1444 nm. An optimisation procedure resulted in the creation of a powerful laser producing 1.4-J pulses at a repetition rate of between 1 and 10 Hz at 1444 nm.