The holmium-doped yttrium orthovanadate 1Ho:YVO42 crystal was shown to be an effective solid-state saturable-absorber Q switch for a flash-lamp-pumped Tm,Cr:Y3Al5O12 laser operating at 2.017 μm. A single Q-switched laser pulse of 3.5 mJ in energy and 45 ns in duration was observed with a 1-mm-thick 4% Ho:YVO4 solid-state saturable absorber, which was grown with the high-temperature-solutiongrowth method.
