Stable mode-locked operation of a low repetition rate diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser by combining quadratic polarisation switching and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

Christoph Gerhard (1) , Frédéric Druon (1) , Patrick Georges (1) , Vincent Couderc (2) , Philippe Leproux (2)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Elsa
2 PHOTONIQUE

In this paper, we present the mode-locked operation of an ultrarobustly stabilised Nd:GdVO4 laser with low repetition rate by combining quadratic polarisation switching and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). In addition, similar experiment was also done with Nd:YVO4. For Nd:GdVO4, 16-ps pulses at 1063nm with a repetition rate of 3.95MHz have been obtained for a laser average output power of 1.4W. For Nd:YVO4, the performance was 2.5W of average power for15-ps pulses at 1064nm. Moreover, we demonstrate experimentally the advantage of combining these two passive mode locking techniques in terms of stability ranges. We show how the dual mode-locking technique is crucial to obtain a stable and long-term mode-locked regime in our case of a diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4 laser operating at low repetition rate and more generally how this dual mode-locking technique improves the stability range of the modelocked operation giving more flexibility on different parameters

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Christoph Gerhard, Frédéric Druon, Patrick Georges, Vincent Couderc, Philippe Leproux. Stable mode-locked operation of a low repetition rate diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser by combining quadratic polarisation switching and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. Optics Express, 2006, vol.14, n°16, pp.7093-7098. ⟨hal-00127373⟩