Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Yb:GYSO laser generating 324 fs pulses at 1091 nm

Abstract

We report the first demonstration of femtosecond operation in a diode-pumped Yb-doped GdYSiO5 (Yb:GYSO) laser. With a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror for passive mode locking and a pair of SF6 prisms for intracavity dispersion compensation, we realized stable passive mode locking with the new Yb-doped laser material. Femtosecond pulses as short as 324 fs were obtained at the central wavelength of 1091 nm. The maximum average power is 450 mW for an absorbed pump power of 2.8 W, with a slope efficiency of 18.5% and a pulse repetition frequency of 80.1 MHz.

Diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:LYSO laser with 61fs pulse duration

“…Moreover, its relatively large emission bandwidth and quite low quantum defect make Yb 3+ doped gain media has the potential to generate high power continuous wave (CW) laser up to hundreds watts and ultrashort pulse down to several tens femtosecond. Until now, several of Yb-doped crystals have been successfully used to generate femtosecond laser operation [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Among them, Yb-doped oxyorthosilicatesYb:Y 2 SiO 5 (Yb:YSO) and Yb:Lu 2 SiO 5 (Yb:LSO) have been demonstrated with outstanding laser performance on both CW and CW mode-locking operations in the past years.…”

Lasing characteristics of Yb-doped gadolinium yttrium mixed oxyorthosilicate Yb:(Gd0.1Y0.9)2SiO5

“…In order to overcome the cleavage, an alloyed crystal Yb:(Gd 1Àx Y x ) 2 SiO 5 was developed to combine excellent mechanical properties, large ground-state splittings and broad emission spectra [6,7]. Most literatures focused on Yb:(Gd 0.5 Y 0.5 ) 2 SiO 5 (x = 0.5, Yb:GYSO) crystals [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. However, the initial emission spectra of Yb:(Gd 1Àx Y x ) 2 SiO 5 (x = 0.7-1) crystals indicate that these materials are of great interest to obtain the laser with wider tunable range [13].…”

Generation of 85 fs laser pulses from a diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locking Yb:(Y0.9La0.1)2O3ceramic laser

“…Secondly, Yb 3+ -doped laser materials also possess numerous excellent characteristics, such as no excited state absorption, no cross relaxation, a broad absorption and emission bandwidth, a small quantum defect and low thermal loading. In recent years, various kinds of Yb 3+ -doped lasers realized mode-locking operations either with the help of saturable absorbers such as semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM) [1][2][3][4], single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) [5][6][7][8], grapheme [9,10], graphene oxide [11], or by means of Kerr-lens mode-locking (KLM) [12]. KLM is a promising technique in diode-pumped solid state Yb 3+ lasers for generating sub-100 fs pulses.…”