Nd:YVO4 has a high gain transition at 1.34 μm. It can be q-switched by the saturable absorber Vanadium:YAG, which has quick recovery, enabling repetition rates above 1 MHz. I demonstrated a 1.34 μm laser for LIDAR with 1.08 nsec pulse duration, 24 kHz repetition rate and 1.75 kW peak power, and in another configuration, 4.8 nsec pulse duration, 1.82 MHz repetition rate and 68 W peak power. Several intermediate cases are described as well. These lasers have part-for-part correspondence with green pointer lasers sold for under $5 which are the size of a penlight. The eye-safe class 1 power at 1.34 μm is 1.9 times that allowable in the 1.4-1.6 μm range.
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