Passively Mode-locked Diode-pumped Yb3+:CaF2 Oscillator
Passively Mode-locked Diode-pumped Yb3+:CaF2 Oscillator
Ultrafast (UF) mode-locked lasers are powerful tools in scientific research and industrial applications including material processing, nonlinear optics, attosecond science, metrology, etc.
For the last 20 years, there has been a growing demand for reliable, compact, high power UF lasers. Passively modelocked diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSL) based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM’s) and Kerr lens mode-locking (KLM) which have demonstrated good performance in terms of pulse duration, peak power, pulse repetition rates and maintainability.
Yb3+:CaF2 has been recognized as a good candidate for a highly efficient high power femtosecond laser, because of its simple energy-level scheme, high quantum efficiency (~1), very small quantum defect (<10%), long upper-state lifetime (2.4 ms), broad emission spectrum (>70 nm), high thermal conductivity and compatibility with high power InGaAs diode pumping.
In this thesis, a passively mode-locked diode-pumped Yb3+:CaF2 oscillator has been developed. In the case of the SESAM mode-locking cavity, energetic Q-switched modelocked laser pulses were generated. A Kerr-lens mode-locked oscillator was constructed for continuous-wave modelocking operations by incorporating an additional optical element with an enhanced nonlinear Kerr coefficient, which represents the first such investigation for an Yb3+:CaF2 oscillator to our best knowledge. A 2-pulse per round trip KLM operation was obtained with output power is 970 mW at 10 W pump and 164 MHz repetition rate. The output spectrum had a FWHM of 3 nm and centered at 1053 nm.
This thesis is free to access via the link below.
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