We report to the best of our knowledge the lowest switching voltage in an electro-optically Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser by using a 13-mm long, 14-μm-period PPLN crystal as a Pockels cell. A switching voltage as low as ∼50 V in the PPLN crystal was sufficient to hold off the lasing of the Q-switched laser at a pump power more than two times above its continuous-wave threshold. When the PPLN Q-switch was driven by a 100-V voltage at 6.5 kHz, we obtained 0.9-kW laser peak power from this 1-W diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser system with 13% output coupling. When the PPLN Pockels cell was cascaded with a 5-cm long, 30-μm-period PPLN crystal, we produced ∼μJ/pulse energy at 1.59 μm from optical parametric generation inside the actively Q-switched laser.
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