High-power amplification of a femtosecond vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser in an Yb:YAG waveguide

Abstract

We present the amplification of a mode-locked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) using an Yb:YAG crystalline waveguide as gain medium. The VECSEL seed laser operates at a center wavelength of 1030 nm and generates 300-fs pulses at a repetition rate of 1.77 GHz. An average seed power of 60 mW was launched onto a 8.3 mm long fs-laser written Yb:YAG waveguide pumped by 7.7 W from a 969-nm continuous-wave VECSEL. The amplifier achieves an average output power of up to 2.9 W, corresponding to an amplification factor of 17 dB. Due to gain narrowing, the pulse duration increases to 629 fs. Our results show that crystalline waveguides are a promising technique for the realization of compact multi-watt ultrafast amplifier systems.

Intracavity losses effect on mode-locking in a waveguide laser with graphene saturable absorber

“…To achieve stable passive mode-locking, high reflectance couplers (T < 10%) are commonly used as an output coupler (OC) [23][24][25][26]. However, for active media with a complicated gain profile providing the possibility of lasing at different wavelengths (for e.g.…”

Selective etching of fs-laser inscribed high aspect ratio microstructures in YAG

“…Aside from the fabrication of three-dimensional hollow microstructures inside passive crystalline materials such as sapphire and YAG, selective etching is also a versatile technique for structuring laser active media. Ytterbium-doped YAG is the most common laser crystal for fs-laser inscribed waveguide lasers and amplifiers [10,14], but also inscription into other materials was reported [15][16][17]. In combination with fs-laser inscribed waveguide lasers and/or amplifiers, selective etching of three-dimensional inscribed structures paves the way for integrated lab-on-a-chip applications of micro-optical and microfluidic devices.…”

Thermal phase fluctuations in optically pumped dual-frequency vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers for cesium clocks based on coherent population trapping

“…Although their miniaturization is still being actively investigated, 1 VECSELs are rather mechanically compact, which is required for their integration in systems. They can display a large optical output power 2 and excellent beam quality, which are, for instance, crucial for medical or biological imaging applications. 3 The most striking feature exhibited by these lasers is their high spectral purity and low intensity noise allowed by their class-A dynamical behavior.…”