All-Solid-State Tunable Ultraviolet Subnanosecond Laser with Direct Pumping by the Fifth Harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser

We report what we believe is the first all-solid-state tunable ultraviolet laser pumped by the fifth harmonic of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Our laser based on a Ce(3+):LiLuF(4) active medium stably generates a single, satellite-free, 0.88-ns pulse under 5-ns, 10-Hz repetition rate pumping conditions. A novel tilted-incident-angle side-pumping scheme resulted in a simple laser-cavity design.