Abstract

Short pulse generation in solid state lasers has in last years decisively evolved towards Ti-sapphire lasers in femtosecond region and diode pumped mode-locked oscillators in picosecond region, but flashlamp pumping is still prevailing for pulsed high peak power 1 um sources operated at low repetition rates. The main drawback of such actively-passively mode-locked flashlamp pumped solid-state laser is the liquid saturable absorber dye used for mode-locking and Q-switching, therefore the replacement of these dyes is most desirable. In last years several solid-state saturable absorbers were investigated.

© 2001 EPS