High-energy self-starting femtosecond Cr(4+):Mg(2)SiO(4) oscillator operating at a low repetition rate.

We describe a self-starting high-power femtosecond laser based on the Cr(4+):Mg(2)SiO(4) crystal that produces 17-nJ pulses of 40-fs duration at 26.5-MHz repetition rate. This low repetition rate is achieved by employment of a one-to-one telescope in the cavity. The pulse energy is five times greater than with a short-resonator laser. To our knowledge, the laser produces the highest energy ever achieved from this type of laser directly from the resonator without cavity dumping or external amplification. We believe that this laser source can be used for many applications, including nonlinear optics, microscopic imaging, and micromachining of silicon and other semiconductor materials.

[1]  G. Jonusauskas,et al.  54-fs, 1-GW, 1-kHz pulse amplification in Cr:forsterite. , 1998, Optics letters.

[2]  F Rotermund,et al.  Mercury thiogallate mid-infrared femtosecond optical parametric generator pumped at 1.25 microm by a Cr:forsterite regenerative amplifier. , 2000, Optics letters.

[3]  F. Wise,et al.  Generation of 25-fs pulses from a self-mode-locked Cr:forsterite laser with optimized group-delay dispersion. , 1993, Optics letters.

[4]  B E Bouma,et al.  Low-repetition-rate high-peak-power Kerr-lens mode-locked TiAl(2)O(3) laser with a multiple-pass cavity. , 1999, Optics letters.

[5]  P. Hamm,et al.  Generation of tunable subpicosecond light pulses in the midinfrared between 4.5 and 11.5 microm. , 1993, Optics letters.

[6]  B E Bouma,et al.  Rapid acquisition of in vivo biological images by use of optical coherence tomography. , 1996, Optics letters.

[7]  R R Alfano,et al.  Continuous-wave laser operation of chromium-doped forsterite. , 1989, Optics letters.

[8]  K. Yoshihara,et al.  Cavity-dumped femtosecond Kerr-lens mode locking in a chromium-doped forsterite laser. , 1996, Optics letters.

[9]  E. Mazur,et al.  Micromachining bulk glass by use of femtosecond laser pulses with nanojoule energy. , 2001, Optics letters.

[10]  R R Alfano,et al.  Generation of sub-100-fs pulses from a cw mode-locked chromium-doped forsterite laser. , 1992, Optics letters.

[11]  S. Gayen,et al.  Laser action in chromium-doped forsterite , 1988 .

[12]  N. Zhavoronkov,et al.  Chromium-doped forsterite laser with 1.1 W of continuous-wave output power at room temperature. , 1997, Applied optics.

[13]  Vladislav V. Yakovlev,et al.  High-power operation of continuous-wave Cr4+:forsterite lasers: excited state absorption versus crystal temperature , 2001, SPIE LASE.

[14]  R R Alfano,et al.  Two-dimensional near-infrared transillumination imaging of biomedical media with a chromium-doped forsterite laser. , 1998, Applied optics.

[15]  A. Sennaroğlu,et al.  Determination of the optimum absorption coefficient in Cr(4+)*forsterite lasers under thermal loading: errata. , 1999, Optics letters.

[16]  James G. Fujimoto,et al.  All-solid-state Cr:forsterite laser generating 14-fs pulses at 1.3 μm , 2001 .

[17]  Timothy J. Carrig,et al.  Performance of a continuous-wave forsterite laser with krypton ion, Ti:sapphire, and Nd:YAG pump lasers , 1993 .

[18]  V. G. Shcherbitsky,et al.  Excited-state absorption in the range of pumping and laser efficiency of Cr4+:forsterite. , 1998, Optics letters.

[19]  Clifford R. Pollock,et al.  Tunable, cw operation of a multiwatt forsterite laser. , 1991, Optics letters.

[20]  F. Wise,et al.  Cr:forsterite laser pumped by broad-area laser diodes. , 1997, Optics letters.

[21]  Vladislav I. Shcheslavskiy,et al.  Kilohertz gain-switched laser operation and femtosecond regenerative amplification in Cr:forsterite , 1999 .

[22]  Wilson,et al.  3D microscopy of transparent objects using third‐harmonic generation , 1998, Journal of microscopy.