High-power, diode-end-pumped, multigigahertz self-mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser at 1342 nm

Abstract

We report on a high-power, diode-pumped, self-mode-locked laser at 1342 nm with the Kerr effect arising from large third-order nonlinearity of Nd:YVO4 crystal. At the pump power of 10.2 W, the average output power of 1.2 W was generated with a repetition rate in the range of 2-6 GHz. The mode-locked pulse width can be smoothly varied from 11.5 to 37 ps by controlling the amount of spatial hole burning. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America