High power diode-pumped Yb3+:CaF2 femtosecond laser

A. Lucca (1) , G. Debourg (1) , Mathieu Jacquemet (1) , Frédéric Druon (1) , François Balembois (1) , Patrick Georges (1) , Patrice Camy (2) , Jean-Louis Doualan (2) , Richard Moncorgé (2)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Elsa
2 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique

We report what is believed to be the first demonstration of a high-power passively mode-locked diode-pumped femtosecond laser based on an Yb31:CaF2 single crystal, directly pumped by a 15-W fiber-coupled laser diode. With a 5-at.% Yb31-doped sample and prisms for dispersion compensation we obtained pulses as short as 150 fs, with 880 mW of average power and up to 1.4-W average output power, with a pulse duration of 220 fs, centered at 1049 nm. The laser wavelength could be tuned from 1040 to 1053 nm in the femtosecond regime. Using chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation, the oscillator provided up to 1.74 W of average power, with a pulse duration of 230 fs, corresponding to a pulse energy of 20 nJ and a peak power of 85 kW

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

A. Lucca, G. Debourg, Mathieu Jacquemet, Frédéric Druon, François Balembois, et al.. High power diode-pumped Yb3+:CaF2 femtosecond laser. Optics Letters, 2004, 29 (23), pp.2767-2769. ⟨hal-00700758⟩