Efficient sub-nanosecond intracavity optical parametric oscillator pumped with a passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

An efficient diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO₄/Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser was employed to generate a high-repetition-rate, high-peak-power eye-safe laser beam with an intracavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a KTP crystal. The conversion efficiency for the average power is 8.3% from pump diode input to OPO signal output and the slope efficiency is up to 10%. At an incident pump power of 14.5 W, the compact intracavity OPO cavity, operating at 46 kHz, produces average powers at 1571 nm up to 1.2 W with a pulse width as short as 700 ps. PACS 42.60.Gd; 42.65.Yj; 42.55.X     

Effects of spatial hole burning in 888?nm pumped, passively mode-locked high-power Nd:YVO4 lasers

We report on an experimental study of 888?nm pumped, passively mode-locked, high-power Nd:YVO₄ lasers with an enhanced cavity design, involving spatial hole burning (SHB) in the active medium. We observed a significant pulse shortening due to the concept of ??Gain-at-the end,?? despite using long gain length up to 30?mm. A?31.6?W average output power TEM₀₀ Nd:YVO₄ oscillator, providing 16.2?ps pulses at an repetition rate of 96?MHz is presented. The pulse duration turns out to be primarily a function of the effective gain length, which can be explained by means of SHB. A?further pulse shortening with decreasing gain length down to 9.5?ps at 11.1?W average output power is demonstrated.     

High power ultrafast Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser mode locked by single wall carbon nanotube absorber

We use a single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) absorber to demonstrate a high power mode locking for Nd:YVO₄ lasers. Under the pump power of 12 W, continuous wave mode-locked (CWML) pulse were generated with the maximum average output power of 3.6 W and the pulse duration of 7.6 ps. The peak power and the single pulse energy of the mode-locked laser were up to 4.9 kW and 37.5 nJ, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the highest average output power of the CWML laser with the SWCNTs absorber reported.     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:LuVO4 laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

We present a compact passively Q-switched mode-locked Nd:LuVO₄ laser run in a Z-type folded cavity with semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The repetition rates of the passively Q-switched pulse envelope ranges from 22.99 to 141.18 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.372 to 8.960 W. The repetition rates of mode-locked laser pulses in the Q-switched pulse envelope has 111 MHz determined by the cavity length and the mode-locked pulse duration is evaluated to be 257 ps. An average output power of 823.5 mW is achieved at the pump power of 8.96 W, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 9.2%.     

High-efficiency 17 W, 80 MHz repetition rate,passively mode-locked TEM<Subscript>00</Subscript> Nd:YAG oscillator pumped at 885 nm

We report on a passively mode-locked TEM₀₀ Nd:YAG oscillator with the beam quality at M ² = 1.1 by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror under 885 nm laser diode direct pumping for the first time. A maximum average output power of 17 W at a repetition rate of 80 MHz with 39 ps pulse width was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 38 W, corresponding to an optical-optical efficiency of 44% and the slope efficiency of 69%, respectively.     

Laser-diode end-pumped intracavity frequency doubling semiconductor saturable absorber mirror passively mode-locked picosecond lasers

A diode pumped Nd:YVO₄ semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) passive mode-locked intracavity frequency doubled laser was studied. A type II phase matching KTiOPO₄(KTP) crystal and a type I phase matching LiB₃O₅ (LBO) frequency doubling crystal were respectively inserted in the cavity. With a pump power of 4.5 W, a 90 mW output of frequency doubled beam and 29.7 ps pulse duration were achieved with frequency doubled by KTP. With the same pump power a 140 mW output of frequency doubled beam and 3.67 ps pulse duration were achieved with LBO.     

Theoretical and experimental study of single mode-locking pulse generation with low repetition rate in a dual-loss-modulated QML YVO4/Nd:YVO4 laser with EO and GaAs

Using electro-optic (EO) modulator and GaAs saturable absorber, a diode-pumped doubly Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄ laser at 1.06 μm is realized. The experimental results show that the number of the mode-locking pulses underneath the Q-switched envelope decreased with increasing pump power. With an output coupling of 6.5 %, the single mode-locking pulse underneath the Q-switched envelope with 1 kHz repetition rate was obtained when the pump power exceeded 4.65 W. At a pump power of 8.25 W for an output coupling of 10 %, a stable mode-locking pulse train at a repetition rate of 1 kHz was achieved with pulse energy as high as 582 μJ and pulse duration of about 580 ps, corresponding to a peak power of 1 MW. Using a hyperbolic secant square function and considering the Gaussian distribution of the intracavity photon density, the coupled rate equations for diode-pumped doubly QML YVO₄/Nd:YVO₄ laser are given and the numerical solutions of the equations are basically in accordance with the experimental results.     

High-power neodymium-doped mixed vanadate bounce geometry laser, mode locked with nonlinear mirror

The highest power neodymium-doped mixed vanadate laser oscillator is presented. Using a crystal of Nd:Gd_0.6Y_0.4VO₄ in the bounce geometry, average output powers of 27.5?W in multimode and 23?W in TEM₀₀ operation were achieved. The first nonlinear mirror mode-locked operation of a mixed vanadate laser is also presented, with 16.8?W output power??the highest power mode-locked mixed vanadate oscillator, to the best of our knowledge. Self-starting continuous-wave mode locking was observed at a repetition rate of 100?MHz, pulse duration of 12.7?ps and central wavelength of 1063.8?nm, in TEM₀₀ mode.     

Continuous-wave and Q-switched laser operation of Nd:Gd0.18Y0.82VO4 mixed crystal

Efficient continuous-wave (cw), passively Q-switched, and actively Q-switched laser operations are demonstrated with a mixed vanadate crystal of Nd:Gd_0.18Y_0.82VO₄ under diode pumping. In a cw operation, an output power of 8.25 W is obtained at a maximum available incident pump power (P_in) of 15 W, with a slope efficiency of 56%. Using a Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal of initial transmission of 62% as the saturable absorber for Q-switching, an average output power of 3.05 W is generated at pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 16.7 kHz when the laser is pumped with the same maximum P_in. The pulse energy, pulse duration, and peak power are 183.3 μJ, 6.0 ns, and 30.6 kW, respectively. When actively Q-switched by an acousto-optic modulator, the laser produces an average output power of 5.5 W at PRF of 30 kHz with 16.2 W of pump power incident upon the laser crystal. The pulse energy, duration, and peak power are measured to be 183 μJ, 10.5 ns, and 17.5 kW, respectively.     

A powerful diode-pumped laser source for micro-machining with ps pulses in the infrared, the visible and the ultraviolet

We report a ps diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser system for micro-machining applications. The system consists of a passively mode-locked oscillator followed by a regenerative amplifier. It provides laser pulses at 1064 nm with a pulse duration of 10.2 ps, a repetition rate of 20 kHz and an average output power of 10.8 W. This average power corresponds to a pulse energy of 0.54 mJ. Second-harmonic generation in LBO and fourth-harmonic generation in BBO provide visible (532-nm) and ultraviolet (266-nm) radiation with pulse energies of 270 J and 75 J, respectively. Amplification in a diode-pumped single-pass Nd:YVO₄ amplifier increases the pulse energy of the fundamental 1064-nm laser pulses to 1 mJ. PACS 42.55.Xi; 42.60.Da; 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Re     

Diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:Lu<Subscript>0.15</Subscript>Y<Subscript>0.85</Subscript>VO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with a GaAs saturable absorber

By using a-cut Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ mixed crystal as laser gain medium, a diode-pumped passively Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) laser with a GaAs saturable absorber in a Z-type folded cavity is demonstrated for the first time. The Q-switched mode-locked laser pulses with about 90% modulation depth are obtained as long as the pump power reached the oscillation threshold. The repetition rate of the passively Q-switched pulse envelope ranges from 50 to 186 kHz as the pump power increases from 0.915 to 6.520 W. Under an incident pump power of 6.52 W, the QML pulses with the largest average output power of 694 mW, the shortest pulse width of 200 ns and the highest pulse energy of 3.73 μJ are obtained. The mode-locked pulse width inside the Q-switched envelope is estimated to be about 275 ps. The experimental results show that Nd:Lu_0.15Y_0.85VO₄ is a promising mixed crystal for QML laser.     

>100-kW linearly polarized pulse fiber amplifier seeded by a compact efficient passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 Laser

We thoroughly develop compact high-peak-power Nd:YVO₄/Cr⁴⁺:YAG passively Q-switched lasers (PQS) as the seed source of the fiber amplifier. We exploit a nearly hemispherical cavity to reach the second threshold criterion and systematically consider the thermal lensing effect and the mode-size matching in the overall optimization. Employing a Cr⁴⁺:YAG absorber with 70% initial transmission, we obtain a 50-kHz seed pulse train with the pulse duration of 4.8 ns and the pulse energy of 22 ??J at a pump power of 5.4 W. Injecting this seed laser into a polarization maintained Yb-doped fiber, the pulse energy and peak power at a pump power of 16 W are enhanced up to 178 ??J and 37 kW, respectively. We also use an absorber with 40% initial transmission to generate a 25 kHz pulse train with the pulse duration of 1.6 ns and the pulse energy of 36 ??J at a pump power of 5.4 W. With this seed laser, we find that the surface damage of the fiber limits the maximum pulse energy and peak power to be 192 ??J and 120 kW, respectively.     

Compact eye-safe intracavity optical parametric oscillator with efficient pulse shortening

We report a compact eye-safe intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO), driven by a diode end-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO₄/Cr: YAG laser. At the incident diode pump power of 6.2 W and signal pulse repetition rate of 13 kHz, we obtain a minimum signal pulse duration as short as 1.3 ns, holding a pulse compressing factor of 17 with respect to that of the pump, and exhibiting an efficient pulse shortening mechanism. At the same time, the maximum average power of 110 mW and pulse energy of 8.5 μJ for the signal wave are also achieved. In addition, cavity dumping characteristics and the correlation dynamics between the laser and the OPO are qualitatively analyzed.     

Experimental study on a diode-pumped passively mode-locking Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/SESAM laser

We demonstrate a low-threshold and efficient diode-pumped passively continuous wave (CW) mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser with a reflective semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The threshold for the continuous wave was 0.36 W, and it is the lowest threshold for a continuous wave in a passively mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser to our knowledge. The maximum average output power of 1.82 W was obtained at a pump power of 6.65 W with a slope efficiency of about 29%. The CW mode-locked pulse duration was measured to be about 10.5 ps with a 116-MHz repetition rate.     

7 W laser diode end-pumped Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> passively mode-locking laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

A powerful and stable LD end pumped Nd:YVO₄ passively mode-locking oscillator by SESAM was demonstrated. At the pumping power of 30 W, 7 W output was obtained with repetition rate of 79.5 MHz and pulse duration of 15 ps. The beam quality factors M ² were measured to be 1.30 and 1.33, respectively.     

High-power Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator in the positive dispersion regime

We demonstrate a self-starting Kerr-lens mode-locked (KLM) Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator operating in the regime of positive intracavity group-delay dispersion (GDD). It delivers 1.7?ps pulses at an average power of 17?W and a repetition rate of 40?MHz. Dispersive mirrors compress the pulses to a duration of 190?fs (assuming sech² shape; Fourier limit: 150?fs) at an average power level of 11?W. To our knowledge, this is the first KLM thin-disk oscillator with positive GDD. Output powers of up to 30?W were achieved with an increased output coupler transmission and intracavity GDD. We demonstrate increase of the pulse energy with increasing positive intracavity GDD, limited by difficulties in initiating mode-locking.     

888 nm LD抽运Nd∶YVO4被动锁模皮秒振荡器

报道了基于888 nm半导体抽运Nd∶YVO4晶体连续被动锁模的皮秒振荡器。通过热激发抽运方式改善激光器的热性能,提高锁模振荡器输出的平均功率与单脉冲能量。利用半导体可饱和吸收体(SESAM)实现激光器锁模运转的启动与维持。在抽运功率为60 W时,获得最大输出功率为15 W,重复频率为53 MHz的皮秒脉冲输出,光-光转换效率为24%。在输出功率为15 W时脉冲宽度为45 ps。     

CW mode locked Nd:YVO4 laser pumped by 20-W laser diode bar

The efficient cw mode locking (cw-ML) regime was demonstrated in Nd:YVO₄ laser by means of saturable absorber mirror (SAM). The 0.3-at.% Nd³⁺ doped 10-mm-long YVO₄ crystal end pumped by 20-W diode module with a beam shaper was applied as a gain medium located in the close vicinity to the rear flat mirror of the first arm of Z-type resonator of 316 cm total length with two curved mirrors of 100-cm curvature radii. The SAM of 2%-saturable absorptance and saturation fluence of 50 μJ/cm² was mounted at the opposite end of a resonator. The developed “dynamically stable” cavity design mitigates detrimental role of thermal aberration in gain medium, enforcing clean perfect mode locking even for the highest pump densities. The cw-ML pulses with 47.5 MHz repetition rate and pulse durations in the range of 15–20 ps were observed for a wide range of pump powers and output coupler losses. In the best case, for 32% of output coupler transmission, up to 6.2 W of average power with near 35% slope efficiency was achieved. The thresholds for Q-switched ML, cw-ML regimes were 2.67 W and 6.13 W of pump power, respectively. For the maximum pump power of 20 W we obtained 133 nJ of pulse energy with 16-ps pulse duration, resulting in a peak power higher than 8 kW. The threshold energy density at SAM giving the QML regime was estimated to be about 30 μJ/cm², threshold of cw-ML regime was 220 μJ/cm².     

光子晶体光纤飞秒激光非线性放大系统的耦合动力学过程研究

构建了掺镱大模场面积单偏振光子晶体光纤飞秒激光非线性放大系统. 讨论了腔内净色散量和抽运功率对振荡级输出参数的影响和振荡级参数对放大级输出参数的影响. 在本实验条件下, 当腔内净色散量取较大负色散时, 振荡级直接输出的脉冲更宽, 且携带更少的啁啾. 当振荡级抽运4.53 W时, 选择最接近变换极限的脉冲作为种子脉冲, 放大级在60 W抽运时输出压缩后无基底的短脉冲, 宽度为45.7 fs, 平均功率28 W. 振荡级抽运功率增加到5.08 W, 放大级抽运70 W时, 获得最高输出功率34.5 W, 对应脉宽53.5 fs.     

Picosecond laser oscillator with a cavity design for stable CW mode-locking operation

A detailed design of a picosecond laser oscillator is made by using optical resonance theory and semiconductor saturable absorber mirror continuous wave mode-locked technology. Mode parameters in the optical resonance including beam sizes on the laser crystal and mode locker are calculated. By theoretical calculations, 3.7 W output power is obtained at a pump power of 11 W and the optical to optical efficiency is 34% in the designed model of picosecond laser. Based on the detailed design, an experiment is proceeded and a picosecond laser oscillator of about 3.5 W output power with 10.6 W pump power is fabricated. The optical to optical efficiency of the laser is 33%, the pulse duration is about 20 ps, and the repetition rate is about 80.3 MHz. The oscillator presents long-term stability in the experiment.