Highly efficient minilaser with transverse pulsed semiconductor pumping for eye-safe laser range-finding

The lasing characteristics of a Cr, Yb, Er:glass minilaser transversely pumped by a pulsed laser diode array are investigated. A single 30-ns pulse of energy 3 mJ, and a beam divergence of 4 mrad was generated for an electric pump pulse energy of 0.5 J in the Q-switching mode.