<title>New concepts for compact diode-pumped femtosecond lasers</title>

Abstract

We report the successful implementation of Gires-Toumois (GTI) and chirped mirrors in a diode-pumped, Kerr-lens modelocked (KLM) Cr:LiSGaF laser.The laser delivered 30mW of79fs, nearly transform limited pulses at 855nmand 90MHz repetition rate.The mirror-dispersion controlled cavity is compared to our prism setup and pulse width limitations in diode pumped Cr:LiSGaF I Cr:LiSAF lasers are identified.Mode matching calculations 'of pump beam and cavity mode are presented to optimise low threshold, highly efficient fsoperation.Following this analysis a compact prismiess design of roughly shoe box size is suggested, which incorporates an additional high n2 element to enhance stability.

Generation of 13.5-fs pulses from a diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked prismless Cr:LiSGaF laser

“…Broad-area laser diodes in the required power range exhibit a rather poor beam quality M 2 in slow-axis of 8 and 16 respectively (50 / 100µm stripe-width). To maximize the gain the overlap of the pump beam with the resonator beam was numerically optimized for both axes of the laser diode [6]. To implement the calculated improvements in mode-matching we used the modified setup in Figure 3.…”