Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:GdYTaO4 laser with SESAM

Abstract

In this letter, a diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:GdYTaO4 laser with semiconductor saturable absorber mirror is demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The remarkably broad fluorescence line width of the novel Nd:GdYTaO4 mixed crystal resulted in a narrow pulse duration of 5.38 ps. At the absorbed pump power of 8.12 W, the average output power was 458 mW with a pulse repetition rate of 84 MHz. The maximum single pulse energy and peak power under this condition were estimated to be 5.48 nJ and 1.02 kW, respectively.