We report the generation of high-order transverse modes from a Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond laser. Two different orders of Hermite-Gaussian modes were realized by non-collinear pumping, which were converted into the corresponding Laguerre-Gaussian vortex modes using a cylindrical lens mode converter. The mode-locked vortex beams, with an average power of 1.4 W and 0.8 W, contained pulses as short as 126 fs and 170 fs at the first and second Hermite-Gaussian mode orders, respectively. This work demonstrates the possibility of developing Kerr-lens mode-locked bulk lasers with various pure high-order modes and paves the way for generating ultrashort vortex beams.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.492186 | DOI Listing |
We demonstrate on a high-power 1-GHz Kerr-lens mode-locked (KLM) ytterbium (Yb):CYA laser delivering 149-fs pulses with an average power of 11.1 W. The corresponding single-pulse energy and peak power are 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe demonstrate the generation of stable femtosecond vortices from a self-started Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator. By using a defective mirror inscribed with a fine line, 218-fs Hermite-Gaussian (HG) pulses are delivered directly from the thin-disk oscillator with an average power of 12 W at the repetition rate of 105 MHz and subsequently converted to Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) vortices by a cylindrical-lens mode-converter. The average output power of the Hermite-Gaussian pulses is further improved to 19 W by applying a rectangular aperture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked laser generating 25 fs pulses at 1080 nm is demonstrated with an Yb-doped compositional mixed calcium aluminate crystal. The Yb:Ca(Gd,Y)AlO laser, which operates at a repetition rate of 65.6 MHz via soft-aperture Kerr-lens mode-locking, is pumped by a spatially single-mode, fiber-coupled diode laser.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we present the demonstration of a cavity-dumped Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond oscillator based on an Yb:CALYO crystal for the first time. With the assistance of an SESAM, the Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:CALYO laser delivered pulses with an average power of 2.8 W at a repetition rate of 61.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMode-locked oscillators with high-order transverse modes are excellent platforms for generating femtosecond optical vortices with high average power and good propagation stability. These have important applications in diverse fields such as optical communication, strong-field physics, and laser processing. So far, generating vortex pulses with ultrashort pulse duration remains a challenge.
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