Short-pulse, eye-safe Nd:YAG laser using cavity-dumping

A short-pulse 1.444-/spl mu/m laser based on Nd:YAG technology has been demonstrated. The 1.444-/spl mu/m is eye-safe. With the cavity-dump technique, a pulse of 50 m/spl times/ and 14 ns was obtained. The beam quality was excellent with an M/sup 2/ of 1.6 by the use of a telescopic resonator. Silicon-window polarizers were used to suppress the 1.06-/spl mu/m radiation but showed 1.444-/spl mu/m absorption as well.