A beta barium borate (β‐BaB2O4 or BBO) crystal has been used to electro‐optically Q switch both diode‐pumped and lamp‐pumped Nd:YLF laser systems, resulting in stable, high average power operation. Piezoelectric ringing was found to have negligible effects on the performance of the BBO Pockels cell at repetition rates up to 6 kHz. The high damage threshold and low insertion loss of BBO permitted operation up to average powers in excess of 6 kW/cm2, which makes a BBO Pockels cell well suited for high power, small mode volume operation, such as in diode‐pumped solid state lasers. Based on typical diode‐pumped laser parameters, BBO is expected to extend simple compact Q‐switched operation of diode‐pumped lasers to average powers of 30–100 W.