Passive mode locking of a Nd:YVO4 laser with an extra-long optical resonator.
We describe a mode-locked, diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser with a very long optical cavity operating at 1064 nm. High-modulation, InGaAs quantum-well, semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors were used for passive mode locking, providing a stable train of 13-ps pulses. A novel zero-q-transformation multipass cell provided a variable-length optical cavity as much as 100 m long. The output beam had M2 < 1.1 at average powers of 4.1, 3.9, and 3.5 W at repetition rates of 4.1, 2.6, and 1.5 MHz, respectively. To the best of our knowledge the last of these is the lowest repetition rate ever generated directly from a mode-locked nonfiber solid-state laser without cavity dumping.
Kolev
V Z
VZ
Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. vesselin.kolev@anu.edu.au
Lederer
M J
MJ
Luther-Davies
B
B
Rode
A V
AV