Diode-pumped Nd:YVO/sub 4/ 1.3 /spl mu/m laser passively Q-switched with the PbS-doped glass

In this paper, we present a silicate glass doped with PbS-quantum dots (QDs) as new saturable absorber (SA) for Q-switching of a diode-pumped Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser. Q-switched pulse width of the laser with the PbS-QDs-doped silicate glass SA was measured to be 15 ns and did not depend on absorbed pump power and the output coupler (OC) reflectivity. The output parameters of our passively Q-switched 1.3 /spl mu/m Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser are well in comparison with actively Q-switched one. The Q-switching efficiency /spl epsiv/ with the OC of R=99% was estimated to be 7% and to be 13% with the OC of R=95%.