Mode-locked Yb:CALGO laser with high peak power sub-100 fs pulses at 26.9 MHz repetition rate

Abstract

The development of a diode-pumped high peak power sub-100 fs mode-locked Yb:CALGO laser is presented. The laser delivered 1.3 W of output power with 81 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 26.9 MHz. The corresponding pulse energy was 48 nJ and the peak power was 596 kW. The cavity was extended by using a 1:1 imaging telescope. Mode locking was based on a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror and chirped mirrors were used to compensate for the positive dispersion in the cavity. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the shortest pulse durations obtained from Yb:CALGO laser around this low repetition rate.