Abstract

Owing to its broad tunability and useful fundamental and second harmonic wavelengths, Cr:forsterite (Cr⁴⁺:Mg₂SiO₄) lasers are attracting a lot of attention in the ultrafast science. However, self-starting operation of relatively low power Kerr lens mode-locked femtosecond Crforsterite lasers using semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors (SESAM’s) was reported only recently [1,2]. We scaled the parameters of this purely passive technique and achieved simultaneously output energies on the 10-nJ level and sub-100 fs pulse durations. The high contrast of these pulses allowed for the first time efficient direct frequency conversion to the 600 nm region with efficiency as high as 30%.

© 1998 IEEE