Prismless diode-pumped femtosecond Nd:glass laser

Summary form only given. Femtosecond lasers emitting in the wavelength range around 1 /spl mu/m are attractive sources for a variety of applications. At 1.06 /spl mu/m, neodymium-doped glass offers both the relatively broad gain bandwidth, which is necessary for femtosecond pulse generation, and a strong absorption band around 800 nm, which allows for direct diode-pumping. Femtosecond pulses from diode-pumped Nd:glass lasers were previously reported, using intracavity semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) to obtain mode-locking. In these lasers prism pairs were used for compensation of intracavity material dispersion and of self-phase modulation, limiting the reliability and compactness of the systems. Towards more compact and reliable femtosecond lasers we demonstrate a SESAM-mode-locked Nd:silicate laser, which uses Gires-Tournois interferometer mirrors for dispersion compensation and which is pumped by only a single laser diode.