Femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser with mode locking initiated by a quantum-well saturable absorber

Author

Zhang, Zhigang ; Torizuka, Kenji ; Itatani, Taro ; Kobayashi, Katsuyuki ; Sugaya, Takeyoshi ; Nakagawa, Tadashi

Author_Institution

New Energy & Ind. Technol. Dev. Organ., Ibaraki, Japan

Volume

33

Issue

11

fYear

1997

fDate

11/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1975

Lastpage

1981

Abstract

We studied a mode-locked Cr:forsterite laser pumped by a diode pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser. Both the Kerr lens mode locking and the semiconductor saturable absorber initiated mode locking have been demonstrated. Using our measured dispersion data of the forsterite crystal, together with our dispersion compensation technique, we obtained 20-fs pulses for the pure Kerr lens mode locking and 36-fs pulses for semiconductor saturable absorber initiated mode locking, respectively

Keywords

chromium; compensation; high-speed optical techniques; laser mode locking; magnesium compounds; optical Kerr effect; optical dispersion; optical saturable absorption; semiconductor quantum wells; solid lasers; 20 fs; 36 fs; Kerr lens mode locking; Mg₂SiO₄; Mg₂SiO₄:Cr; YVO₄:Nd; diode pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser; dispersion compensation technique; femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser mode locking; forsterite crystal; fs pulses; measured dispersion data; pure Kerr lens mode locking; quantum-well saturable absorber; semiconductor saturable absorber; Absorption; Laser mode locking; Lenses; Mirrors; Optical pulses; Pulse measurements; Pump lasers; Quantum well lasers; Semiconductor lasers; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.641312

Filename

641312