1 mJ, 500 kHz Nd:YAG/Nd:YVO4 MOPA laser with a Nd:YAG cavity-dumping seed laser

We report a high-repetition-rate, high-pulse-energy master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) laser system, in which the seed laser from the Nd:YAG rod-based oscillator cavity dumped at 500 kHz, was scaled up consecutively by a four-stage Nd:YVO4 preamplifier and a two-stage Nd:YAG zigzag slab main amplifier. The laser pulsed output with the average power of 510 W was achieved, with the efficiency extraction of 26.6% at the main amplifier stage and the single-pulse energy of 1.02 mJ.