Abstract

The rapid development of ultrafast tunable solid-state lasers has extended to the near infrared with the demonstration of mode- locked Cr⁴⁺ :forsterite [e.g., ref. 1] and Cr⁴⁺:YAG lasers.² Previously we reported the first ultrafast Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser which was actively mode-locked with an acousto-optic modulator to yield 26 ps pulses.² Subsequent refinements have reduced the pulse duration to 10 ps and we have also generated ~20 ps pulses using synchronous mode-locking. We observed that, although mode-locking was achieved across almost the full laser tuning range (coating-limited to 1.37-1.51 μm), there were several wavelengths where it was degraded.

© 1994 Optical Society of America