title: Passive mode locking of a Nd:YVO4 laser with an extra-long optical resonator.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. vesselin.kolev@anu.edu.au
authors.forename: V Z
authors.initials: VZ
authors.lastname: Kolev
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lederer
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Luther-Davies
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Rode