Two-element-cavity femtosecond Cr(4+):YAG laser operating at a 2.6-GHz repetition rate

A femtosecond Cr(4+):YAG laser with a simple two-element cavity was built. This laser typically attained a repetition rate of 2.64 GHz with a pulse width of 115 fs at a center wavelength of 1540 nm. Output pulses were characterized by second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating. Alignment of the two-element cavity for mode-locked operation was easy; moreover, the cavity structure has the potential to produce an even higher repetition rate because one can miniaturize it simply by shortening a gain medium length.     

High-energy self-starting femtosecond Cr(4+):Mg(2)SiO(4) oscillator operating at a low repetition rate

We describe a self-starting high-power femtosecond laser based on the Cr(4+):Mg(2)SiO(4) crystal that produces 17-nJ pulses of 40-fs duration at 26.5-MHz repetition rate. This low repetition rate is achieved by employment of a one-to-one telescope in the cavity. The pulse energy is five times greater than with a short-resonator laser. To our knowledge, the laser produces the highest energy ever achieved from this type of laser directly from the resonator without cavity dumping or external amplification. We believe that this laser source can be used for many applications, including nonlinear optics, microscopic imaging, and micromachining of silicon and other semiconductor materials.     

Femtosecond Ti:sapphire ring laser with a 2-GHz repetition rate and its application in time-resolved spectroscopy

A Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser operating at a repetition rate of 2 GHz is demonstrated. A mirror-dispersion-controlled unidirectional ring cavity delivers nearly bandwidth-limited pulses of 23-fs length. Mode locking is self-starting without a hard aperture in the cavity. The advantages of this high-repetition-rate oscillator in optical time-resolved spectroscopy are demonstrated.     

Self-starting mode-locked Cr(4+):YAG laser with a low-loss broadband semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror

We report a self-starting mode-locked Cr(4+):YAG laser with a low-loss broadband metal reflector-based semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror. The minimum pulse width was 44 fs at a wavelength of 1520 nm.     

True fundamental solitons in a passively mode-locked short-cavity Cr(4+):YAG laser

We demonstrate a self-starting, passively mode-locked short-cavity Cr(4+):YAG laser that supports fundamental intracavity solitons over wide ranges of cavity group-velocity dispersion and pulse energies. The total dispersion and nonlinear effects are small enough that stable, N=1 soliton pulses are generated. Equally spaced multiple pulsing is also observed, with fundamental soliton behavior preserved. Regions of bistability exist where, at a constant cavity dispersion, the laser can produce transform-limited pulses of a different width and energy. The laser produces 200-fs pulses at approximately 0.9-, 1.8-, and 2.7-GHz repetition rates with a total of 82 mW of average output power.     

Generation of 20-fs pulses by a prismless Cr(4+):YAG laser

Ultrafast optical pulses shorter than 20 fs with 400-mW average power at a 110-MHz repetition rate have been generated by a Cr(4+):YAG laser with only double-chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation. The corresponding pulse spectrum has a peak intensity at 1450 nm and extends from 1310 to 1500 nm full width at half-maximum (FWHM). These pulses, which are believed to be the shortest generated to date from a Cr(4+):YAG laser, are only four optical cycles within the FWHM intensity width.     

High-power diode-pumped Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YVO(4) laser with a Cr(4+):YAG saturable absorber

We demonstrate a high-power passively Q -switched and mode-locked Nd:YVO(4) laser with a Cr(4+):YAG saturable absorber. 2.7 W of average power with an 18-kHz Q -switched repetition rate was generated at a 12.5-W pump power. The peak power of a single pulse near the maximum of the Q -switched envelope was greater than 100 kW.     

Passively mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 oscillator operating at an ultralow repetition rate

We demonstrate the operation of an ultralow-repetition-rate, high-peak-power, picosecond diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 passively mode-locked laser oscillator. Repetition rates lower than 1 MHz were achieved with the use of a new design for a multiple-pass cavity and a semiconductor saturable absorber. Long-term stable operation at 1.2 MHz with a pulse duration of 16.3 ps and an average output power of 470 mW, corresponding to 24-kW peak-power pulses, is reported. These are to our knowledge the lowest-repetition-rate high-peak-power pulses ever generated directly from apicosecond laser resonator without cavity dumping.     

Multi-sideband Generation in a Femtosecond Cr4+:YAG Laser

We describe the behavior of multi-sidebands in a self-mode-locked femtosecond Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser operating near 1.54 μm. Stokes and anti-Stokes sideband components are extended over 20 THz around the center frequency. An interesting feature here is that when the spectral width of the mode-locked pulse is increased, the specific Stokes sideband near 1.65 μm (a shift of 13.5 THz) is strongly enhanced due to an induced-Raman process in the laser rod. The measured frequency shifts for all sidebands are well explained by four-wave-mixing processes in the laser rod, accompanied by the resonance effect of the soliton and dispersive wave, both of which are affected mainly by cavity dispersions.     

采用多通腔望远镜谐振腔结构的10MHz重复频率飞秒钛宝石激光器特性研究

通过在钛宝石激光腔内引入望远镜长腔系统增加腔长,实现了重复频率低到10?MHz的飞秒激光振荡,在5?W的抽运功率下获得了平均输出功率200?mW、单脉冲能量20?nJ的稳定输出. 在此基础上分析了腔内不同色散情况下的输出脉冲光谱和脉宽特性,结果表明在腔内存在一定负色散的情况下,锁模脉宽可接近转换极限,最短脉宽可达56?fs. 而在正色散的情况下,锁模输出的脉宽较宽,并且随着腔内正色散的增多,脉宽可到大于600?fs,锁模光谱也呈马鞍形. 关键词： 钛宝石激光器 飞秒脉冲 低重复频率 望远镜腔     

30 mJ, TEM00, high repetition rate, mechanically Q-switched Er:YAG laser operating at 2940 nm

The 2940 nm Er:YAG laser Q-switched mechanically by means of a rotating mirror was developed. It generated the output pulses of up to 30 mJ energy, below 300 ns duration and record repetition rate of 25 Hz. The developed laser was effectively used for the investigation of laser beam interaction with selected organic matter simulants.     

Diode-pumped self-Q-switched single-frequency 946-nm Nd(3+), Cr(4+):YAG microchip laser

A stable low-threshold self-Q-switched diode-pumped 946-nm Nd(3+), Cr(4+):YAG microchip laser operating in single frequency and fundamental transverse mode is reported. The output characteristics of the microchip laser were investigated under cw and pulsed pumping. By combination of the infrared microchip and an external frequency doubler, 473-nm pulses with a conversion efficiency of 18% were achieved.     

Efficient GTR-KTP IOPO driven by a diode-pumped Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG laser with the shared cavity configuration

An efficient eye-safe GTR-KTP IOPO with the shared cavity configuration and excited by a diode-end-pumped composite Nd:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser was demonstrated. Under the incident LD power of 8.4 W, the maximum average output power of 900 mW at 1572 nm was obtained with the T=33% output coupler, corresponding to a diode-to-signal conversion efficiency of 10.7%. The corresponding signal pulse width and repetition rate were respectively 2.2 ns and 12 kHz, with the peak power and single pulse energy estimated to be 34.1 kW and 75 μJ, respectively. The instability of the average signal output power over hours-long operation was found to be 2.0%. As for the common KTP IOPO at the same pump condition and cavity design, a lower average output power of 640 mW with a longer pulse width of 4.6 ns was obtained. The corresponding diode-to-signal conversion efficiency was reduced by 28.8% compared with that obtained in GTR-KTP IOPO. A theoretical model for the compact GTR-KTP IOPO was also presented in this paper. Theoretical analysis on the pulse characteristics of the signal was performed, which showed a good agreement with that obtained experimentally.     

Self-starting soliton-modelocked femtosecond Cr(4+):YAG laser using an antiresonant Fabry–Pérot saturable absorber

Received: 31 January 1997     

In-line Nd:YAG resonator using self-pumped phase conjugation in Cr(4+):YAG

We report the operation of an in-line Nd:YAG resonator using self-pumped phase conjugation in Cr(4+): YAG at lambda=1.064microm in the nanosecond regime. The output beam has a high-quality diffraction-limited TEM(00) mode and a pulse shape of ~15ns , showing the self- Q -switching ability of the resonator. A maximum extraction of 18mJ and a maximum reflectivity of 2.0 are measured. A transient model provides insight into the energy characteristics and the dynamics of such an in-line resonator.     

100-TW sub-20-fs Ti:sapphire laser system operating at a 10-Hz repetition rate

We developed a compact three-stage Ti:sapphire amplifier laser system that produced peak power in excess of 100 TW for a pulse duration of less than 19 fs and an average power of 19 W at a 10-Hz repetition rate. A final 40-mm-diameter Ti:sapphire amplifier is pumped by a Nd:YAG master-oscillator-power-amplifier system that produces ~7-J output of 532-nm radiation. The spatial beam quality is approximately 2 times diffraction limited for the full amplified compressed output pulse. With f/3 optics, this system should therefore be capable of producing a focused intensity of ~3x10(20) W/cm(2) .     

High repetition rate laser pulses amplified by Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic amplifier under CW arc-lamp-light pumping

Laser pulses with high repetitive rate generated from a Q-switch microchip Nd:YAG oscillator were amplified by Active mirror composed of Nd/Cr:YAG ceramic pumped by CW arc-lamp. The laser pulses were amplified, and saturation of averaged output laser power was observed. Repetitive ratio of injected laser pulses was changed from 20 to 100 kHz. Averaged output laser power and gain were measured, and gain coefficient and power-extraction efficiency were evaluated. Output laser power was calculated and compared to experimentally measured one, and the calculated results are consistent with the experimental ones. For amplification of laser pulses with high repetitive ratio, this laser material can realize very high laser gain with low pumping power density and high optical-optical conversion efficiency under CW-lamp-light pumping.     

Diode pumped Nd:YAG laser repetitively Q-switched with Cr4+:YAG

Based on the rate equations of passively Q-switched solid state lasers, the performance of laser at a fixed pump power can be optimized through the proper choice of output coupler and the low-intensity transmission of saturable absorber. A simple expression for optimizing these two parameters is derived in this paper. We also demonstrate the performance of an efficient diode-pumpe Cr⁴⁺:YAG passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser to generate a high-repetition-ate, high-peak power 1064 nm laser pulses, which providing pulses peak power > 10 kW with high repetition rate up to 150 kHz, and the pulse width as short as 6.8 ns.     

Efficient, kHz repetition rate, gain-switched Cr:forsterite laser

We have developed a gain-switched room-temperature Cr:forsterite laser operating at repetition rates of between 1 and 34 kHz, and pumped by a continuous wave, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. With optimised output coupling, an output pulse energy of 52 μJ was measured at 1.5 kHz repetition rate, corresponding to 11% efficiency and 13% slope efficiency. Threshold pulse energy was 53 μJ. Output power of 370 mW was obtained at 10 kHz repetition rate and 4.4 W pump power. Water cooling was not required for repetition rates up to 10 kHz. In a tunable, folded resonator, the Cr:forsterite wavelength tuned between 1173 and 1338 nm. This laser operated with maximum pulse energy of 34 μJ, efficiency of 13%, and power of 307 mW. The laser output was close to diffraction-limited with M² of 1.2. Received: 6 January 1999 / Published online: 29 July 1999