Abstract

Fluoride crystals (CaF₂, SrF₂) doped with neodymium Nd³⁺ and codoped with non-active ions as Y³⁺, La³⁺, or Gd³⁺ for breaking clusters of active ions, have become recently interesting active media for the diode-pumped mode-locked lasers. They possess broader emission spectra as well as longer fluorescence lifetime in comparison with widely used crystals such as Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO₄. The femtosecond Nd,Y:SrF₂ laser generating 97 fs pulses was reported in the Ti:sapphire pumped system [1]. We have reported continuously mode-locked operation of this laser pumped by a 2 W multimode laser diode and mode-locked using a semiconductor saturable absorber generating pulses with the duration of 258 fs [2]. In laser systems with La³⁺ codoped crystals, which have wider tunability than Y³⁺ codoped crystals, passively mode-locked 354 to 1200 fs and continuous-wave 1044 to 1081 nm tunable operation was reported in the system pumped by 4 W laser diode [3]. Recently a new Nd,Gd:SrF₂ crystal has been investigated and the dual wavelength mode-locked picosecond operation was reported for pump power higher than 3.8 W [4]. We reported femtosecond operation of laser with this crystal and obtained pulses as short as 228 fs with output power of 2 x 50 mW in system pumped by 2 W laser diode for absorbed pump power of 1320 mW [5].

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