YAG
Shorthand for yttrium aluminum garnet, and in practice for the Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm.
Yttrium aluminum garnet is a hard, thermally robust host crystal, and doped with neodymium it becomes the classic 1064 nm solid-state laser. In shop talk the YAG means a Nd:YAG laser, whether a flashlamp-pumped marking system, a Q-switched lab workhorse or a medical laser. Doubled YAG means its 532 nm green output; Yb:YAG and Er:YAG name other dopants in the same host.
Book the old YAG for Thursday, we need the 10 nanosecond pulses and the doubler is already aligned.
Also heard as
- Nd:YAG
- YAG laser
Related terms
Four-level laser
A laser whose lower laser level sits above the ground state and empties quickly, so inversion is easy to reach.
Gain medium
The material inside a laser or amplifier that amplifies light once it is pumped: a crystal, glass, gas, semiconductor or doped fiber.
Doubler
Lab slang for the frequency-doubling crystal or module that turns an infrared laser into its second harmonic.
Q-switching
Producing short, intense laser pulses by holding cavity losses high while energy builds up, then suddenly dropping them.