Mapping of the second-harmonic nonlinear mirror characteristics for laser mode locking and pulse shortening

Pumping picosecond optical parametric oscillators by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser mode locked using a nonlinear mirror

“…3 The shortest pulse duration ever achieved with such a pulsed laser, since the first demonstration of that technology in 1988, is 25 ps. 4 Recently, we demonstrated that the combination of a twophoton absorber ͑TPA͒ with a FDNLM enables us to obtain pulses as short as 12 ps with energy of 1 J. 5 However, the low performance of the FDNLM, with respect to either pulse duration or pulse energy, has prevented its practical use in a laser system.…”