550 MHz carbon nanotube mode-locked femtosecond Cr:YAG laser

We demonstrate a femtosecond Cr:YAG laser mode-locked by a carbon nanotube saturable absorber mirror(CNT-SAM) at a repetition rate of 550 MHz. By employing the CNT-SAM, which exhibits a modulation depth of 0.51% and a saturation fluence of 28 μJ∕cm~2 at 1.5 μm, we achieved a compact bulk Cr:YAG laser with selfstarting mode-locked operation near 1.5 μm, delivering an average output power of up to 147 m W and a pulse duration of 110 fs. To our knowledge, this system provides the highest repetition rate among reported CNT-SAM mode-locked Cr:YAG lasers and the shortest pulse duration among saturable absorber mode-locked Cr:YAG lasers with repetition rates above 500 MHz.