Performance of Yb:Sc2SiO5 crystal in diode-pumped femtosecond oscillator and regenerative amplifier

Yb:Sc2SiO5 has been investigated in a low-power laser femtosecond oscillator pumped by 400-mW single-mode fiber-coupled diode at 976 nm. Pulses as short as 71 fs were achieved. The same crystal was later employed in a regenerative amplifier, with an output power as high as 4.7 W at 500 kHz and sub-300-fs pulses

Ultrafast, solid-state oscillators based on broadband, multisite Yb-doped crystals

A detailed performance comparison of new interesting Yb doped crystals in the same oscillator setup, with a single-mode fiber coupled diode laser pump, is reported. We intended to assess the shortest pulses achievable with available SESAM technology, running a fair comparison with laser crystals Yb:KLuW, Yb:SSO, Yb:CALGO, Yb:CALYO and Yb:CaF2, very likely including the most promising choices for the next generation of commercial bulk ultrafast solid-state systems

65-fs Yb:CaF_2 laser mode-locked by semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

An Yb:CaF2 laser pumped by two 400-mW single-mode laser diodes at 976 nm is reported to generate Fourierlimited 65-fs pulses, the shortest to date achieved with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locking and this laser material to date. With a multimode pump diode, we have demonstrated higher average output powers of up to 1.4 W with 87-fs pulses. Key to these successful results was the implementation of practical design guidelines allowing safe mode-locking operation without Q-switching instabilities, which appear to damage the SESAMs more easily in Yb:CaF2 oscillators compared to other Yb-doped materials

65 fs SESAM mode-locked diode-pumped Yb:CaF2 laser

We present an efficient, single-mode diode-pumped, SESAM-modelocked Yb:CaF2 laser with pulses as short as 65-fs. Higher average output powers of up to 1.4 W with 87-fs, almost Fourier-transform limited pulses could be demonstrated as well

High Power Femtosecond Yb:Lu_2O_3 Amplifier and Sub-100 fs Yb:Lu_2O_3 Oscillator

We obtained up to 42 W with 780 fs-long pulses at 500 kHz repetition rate with M2=1.2 in a Yb:Lu2O3 based regenerative amplifier. Also, sub-100-fs pulse generation in a low-power SESAM mode-locked oscillator are presented

Sub-50-fs widely tunable Yb:CaYAlO4 laser pumped by 400-mW single-mode fiber-coupled laser diode

Yb:CaYAlO4 has been investigated spectroscopically and compared to better known Yb:CaGdAlO4. It turns out that both materials show very similar spectroscopic parameters relevant to ultrafast lasers design. Employing single-mode fiber-coupled 400-mW laser diode at 976 nm we measured pulses as short as 43 fs, and broad tunability of 40 nm with a simple single-prism setup

Tm:CaGdAlO4: spectroscopy, microchip laser and passive Q-switching by carbon nanostructures

Absorption, stimulated-emission and gain cross-sections are determined for 3 at.% Tm:CaGdAlO4. This crystal is employed in a microchip laser diode-pumped at 802 nm. In the continuous-wave (CW) regime, this laser generates 1.16 W at 1883-1893 nm with a slope efficiency of 32% with respect to the absorbed pump power. Using a special "bandpass" output coupler, vibronic CW laser operation up to 2043 nm is achieved. For passive Q-switching of the Tm:CaGdAlO4 laser-saturable absorbers (SAs) based on CVD-grown graphene and randomly-oriented arc-discharge single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in a PMMA film. The SWCNT-SA demonstrates superior performance. The laser produced a maximum average output power of 245 mW at 1844 nm with a slope efficiency of 8%. The latter corresponds to a pulse energy and duration of 6 μJ and 138 ns, respectively, at a repetition rate of 41 kHz. Using the graphene-SA, 2.8 μJ, 490 ns pulses are obtained at a repetition rate of 86 kHz