Synchronously pumped mode-locked dye laser pumped by a frequency-doubled mode-locked and Q-switched diode laser pumped Nd:YAG laser

Abstract

We have developed a powerful and efficient mode‐locked and Q‐switched diode laser pumped Nd:YAG laser. Mode locking has been accomplished using intracavity frequency modulation (FM) to produce continuous‐wave mode‐locked pulses of 12 ps duration. Acousto‐optic pre‐lase Q switching has produced a train of pulses of about 25 ps average duration at a repetition rate of 360 MHz in an envelope of 75 ns duration. When pumped with a 500 mW diode laser array, the energy in the Q‐switched envelope was 15 μJ giving a peak power in the largest pulse of 19 kW. The laser has been frequency doubled in a crystal of potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) with an efficiency of 36%. The doubled radiation at 532 nm has been used to synchronously pump a mode‐locked rhodamine 6G dye laser to produce a train of tunable pulses. The pulse duration of the dye laser was 3.2 ps and the peak power of the largest pulse in the train was 10 kW.