title: High peak power Q-switched Er:YAG laser with two polarizers and its ablation performance for hard dental tissues.
abstract: An electro-optically Q-switched high-energy Er:YAG laser with two polarizers is proposed. By using two Al(2)O(3) polarizing plates and a LiNbO(3) crystal with Brewster angle, the polarization efficiency is significantly improved. As a result, 226 mJ pulse energy with 62 ns pulse width is achieved at the repetition rate of 3 Hz, the corresponding peak power is 3.6 MW. To our knowledge, such a high peak power has not been reported in literature. With our designed laser, in-vitro teeth were irradiated under Q-switched and free-running modes. Results of a laser ablation experiment on hard dental tissue with the high-peak-power laser demonstrates that the Q-switched Er:YAG laser has higher ablation precision and less thermal damage than the free-running Er:YAG laser.
authors: Jingwei
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Wang
authors: Xianyou
authors: X
authors: Wu
authors: Tingqing
authors: T
authors: Cheng
authors: Haihe
authors: H
authors: Jiang
mesh_terms: D005881:Gingiva / Q000601:surgery*; D006244:Hardness; D006801:Humans; D053685:Laser Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State