Diode-pumped self-starting mode-locked femtosecond Yb:YCa ₄ O(BO ₃ ) ₃ laser

Abstract

A self-starting mode-locked femtosecond laser is accomplished with an oxoborate self-frequency doubling crystal Yb:YCa 4 O(BO 3 ) 3 (Yb:YCOB) as the gain medium and a semiconductor mirror as the saturable absorber. Pumped by a 976-nm fiber-coupled diode laser with 50-µm core diameter, stable mode-locked laser pulses up to 430 mW were obtained at a repetition rate of 83.61 MHz under 5-W pump power. The autocorrelation measurement shows that the pulse duration is as short as 150 fs by assuming the sech 2 pulse shape at a central wavelength of 1048 nm. This work has demonstrated a compact and reliable femtosecond laser source for prospective low-cost applications.

Tunable second harmonic generation from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YCa 4 O(BO 3 ) 3 femtosecond laser

“…All polarization configurations of Yb:YCOB have been studied in the CW laser regime, achieving a slope efficiency of 73% [18] and 83%. [19] In the CW operation, the widely tunable wavelength range from 997 nm to 1092 nm [17] and 1007 nm to 1100 nm [20] was obtained for E X and E Y polarizations, respectively, providing a potential to generate ultrashort femtosecond pulses. In 2000, the first passive modelocking operation based on a Yb:YCOB crystal was demon-strated, delivering 210-fs laser pulses.…”

Diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond Yb:YAG ceramic laser

“…In recent years, there has been a growing interest in diodepumped all-solid-state ultrafast laser with short pulse duration, high average output power, high efficiency and high reliability for many applications, including optical frequency comb, ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, femtosecond optical coherent tomography, and superfine material processing. Among the various Yb 3+ -based lasers, [1][2][3] Yb:YAG laser plays an important role, owing to the excellent thermal and optical properties of Yb:YAG crystal. Since the first room-temperature diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser was reported, [4] intensive continuous wave (CW) and mode-locked Yb:YAG lasers have been studied.…”

Diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:CaGdAlO4laser with tunable wavelength

“…Laser systems based on Yb-doped laser materials have proved their potential for efficient femtosecond lasers, benefiting from the numerous excellent spectral and thermal characteristics of the Yb-doped materials. To date, a number of diode-pumped femtosecond mode-locked lasers have been generated based on various Yb-doped laser materials [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) for passive mode-locking. Kerr-lens mode-locking (KLM) is a well developed technique for mode-locking which has been widely used in femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser.…”