Low-threshold and highly efficient diode-pumped cw passively mode-locked Nd: YVO4 laser with a saturable Bragg reflector -: art. no. 094201

We report a diode-end-pumped 1064-nm Nd:YVO4 laser passively cw mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. We designed a long cavity with relatively small mode size in the gain medium so that stable passive mode locking without Q-switching instabilities became possible under low pump power. At 2.42 W of pump power a mode-locked fundamental-mode average output power of 742 mW was attained with an overall optical-optical efficiency of 31%. The pulse duration was 9.1 ps as measured at the repetition rate of 58 MHz. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers.