Abstract

Compact, reliable, tunable and cheap sources for pico and femtosecond pulses in the optical communications wavelength range at high repetition rates around 10 GHz are still not available. In this paper, we demonstrate the first step towards such a device based on a 1cm long Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal. Fig. 1 shows the basic setup of the microchip loser. The light from a diode-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser is focussed via a telescope into the 1 cm laser crystal with a mode size ranging between 40-70 µm. The laser crystal is sandwiched in longitudinal direction between the HR-mirror with high transmission for the pump wavelength 1064 nm and high reflectivity for the laser wavelength between 1450-1600 nm and an output coupler OC with 0.25% transmission from 1-150-1600 nm. The laser output is separated from the pump by a dichroic mirror.

© 2000 IEEE