Spectroscopic properties and ultrafast performance of Yb:CaLuxGd1−xAlO4 crystal

Abstract

A systematical investigation of the spectroscopic and ultrafast performance of Yb:CaLuxGd1−xAlO4 crystal (Yb:CLGA) was reported first in this work. A SESAM-based mode-locking laser was achieved by self-starting, generating reliable pulses as short as 69.6 fs. At a central wavelength of 1054 nm, a maximum average output power of 232 mW was obtained with the highest peak power of 63.7 kW. The same crystal was employed in wavelength tunable operation, and 65.7 nm of tuning range between 1023.1 nm and 1088.8 nm was obtained with a resolution of sub-0.1 nm.