Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:YVO_4 laser at 1342 nm with periodically poled LiNbO_3

Abstract

In this Letter, we demonstrate a nonlinear-mirror (NLM) mode-locked diode-pumped solid-state Nd:YVO4 laser operating at 1342 nm, in which the NLM comprises a periodically poled LiNbO3 crystal and a dichroic mirror. The self-starting threshold for cw mode locking is 1.5 W, which is significantly lower than that of saturable absorber mode locking. An average power of 1.52 W at 1342 nm is obtained under diode pump power of 10 W at 808 nm, with the slope efficiency being up to 16.8%. The pulse width and the repetition rate of the mode-locked laser output are about 9.5 ps and 101 MHz, respectively.

Picosecond laser with 11W output power at 1342nm based on composite multiple doping level Nd:YVO4 crystal

“…Remarkable progress has been made over the past decade in power and energy scaling of CW [1][2][3][4], Q-switched [5,6] and mode-locked [7][8][9][10][11] lasers operating at 1342 nm wavelength.…”

“…Mode-locking by periodically poled (PP) LiNbO 3 frequency doubling nonlinear mirror [8] provides 9.5 ps pulses at 101 MHz with output power of 1.5 W and beam propagation factor of M 2 $ 2.3. Even shorter 3.6-6.9 ps mode-locked pulses with an output power of 0.8-1.05 W at 120 kHz demonstrated [9] by frequency doubling negative lens in PP MgSLT crystal.…”

“…Despite the hope for average and peak power scaling reported in Refs. [7][8][9][10][11] mode locked Nd:YVO 4 lasers at 1342 nm wavelength remain unsuitable for efficient materials ablation.…”

High average power picosecond and nanosecond laser operating at 1342nm wavelength

“…Caused by emerging applications, remarkable progress have been made over the past decade in power and energy scaling of CW, Q-switched and mode-locked lasers running at 1342 nm wavelength [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] . Side-pumped bounce geometry 1 Nd:YVO 4 CW MOPA produces 19.6 W. Higher ~ 26 W output power with M 2 > 30 achieved 2 Short pulsewidth Nd:YVO 4 lasers with output power above 1 W at 1342 nm have been reported in ref.…”

“…Side-pumped bounce geometry 1 Nd:YVO 4 CW MOPA produces 19.6 W. Higher ~ 26 W output power with M 2 > 30 achieved 2 Short pulsewidth Nd:YVO 4 lasers with output power above 1 W at 1342 nm have been reported in ref. [8][9] Mode-locked by quantum-well saturable absorber laser produced 26 ps pulses 8 with output power of 1.05 W at 152 MHz. Modelocking by periodically poled LiNbO 3 nonlinear mirror 9 provides 9.5 ps pulses with output power of 1.5 W and M 2 ~ 2.3 at 101 MHz.…”