A high brightness, high energy passively Q-switched (PQS) Nd:YAG laser is presented using volume transmitting Bragg gratings (TBGs) as angular filters. A planar cavity with a length of 1 cm, an 800 μm diameter pump beam, a 20% transmission Cr:YAG saturable absorber, and a 40% output coupling resulted in output pulse energies greater than 1 mJ and durations near 600 ps. In order to increase brightness without altering cavity length, a TBG with narrow angular selectivity placed in the cavity to suppress the higher order transverse modes allowing for near diffraction limited output.

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Evan R. Hale, Ivan Divliansky, and Leonid Glebov, "High brightness, sub-nanosecond, and compact passively Q-switched laser with intracavity volume Bragg gratings," Proc. SPIE 10637, Laser Technology for Defense and Security XIV, 1063711 (Presented at SPIE Defense + Security: April 19, 2018; Published: 4 May 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2307204.