A very high energy Q-switched Er-glass laser is reported. We incorporated a rotating, resonant mirror/Porro-cavity reflector optical arrangement to achieve very high shutter speeds on the cavity Q of a laser designed for energetic, flashlamp-pumped, 600-µs, 1540-nm pulses. Reproducible 3.75-J, 35-ns, 1533-nm laser pulses were obtained at a repetition rate less than 1 minute. Our work shows that reliable, very high energy, Q-switched, Er-glass laser pulses at 1533 nm can be generated mechanically with no apparent damage to laser cavity components. We demonstrate the applications of this "eye safe" wavelength to energetic processes such as LIBS and materials processing. The laser could also serve as a new tool for bioeffects studies and targeting applications.

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The reflectance and absorption of the skin plays a vital role in determining how much radiation will be absorbed by human tissue. Any substance covering the skin would change the way radiation is reflected and absorbed and thus the extent of thermal injury. Hairless guinea pigs (cavia porcellus) in vivo were used to evaluate how the minimum visible lesion threshold for single-pulse laser exposure is changed with a topical agent applied to the skin. The ED 50 for visible lesions due to an Er: glass laser at 1540-nm with a pulse width of 50-ns was determined, and the results were compared with model predictions using a skin thermal model. The ED 50 is compared with the damage threshold of skin coated with a highly absorbing topical cream at 1540 nm to determine its effect on damage pathology and threshold. The ED 50 for the guinea pig was then compared to similar studies using Yucatan minipigs and Yorkshire pigs at 1540-nm and nanosecond pulse duration. 1, 2 The damage threshold at 24-hours of a Yorkshire pig for a 2.5-3.5-mm diameter beam for 100 ns was 3.2 Jcm -2 ; very similar to our ED 50 of 3.00 Jcm -2 for the hairless guinea pigs.