Abstract

Compact and efficient laser units with short pulse widths, high repetition rates, and high power are of interest for various applications including photonic switching and optical computing power supplies. By combining the current technologies in diode pumped Nd:YAG lasers and GaP mode lockers we have been able to achieve ultrashort pulses at 1-GHz repetition rates from a compact laser unit. Since all the components in the laser cavity are solid state and are not water cooled, excellent amplitude stability is obtained. The laser cavity consists of a commercially available diode pumped Nd:YAG rod, lens, and a 1-GHz modulation frequency GaP mode locker. The cavity is harmonically mode locked at a frequency twice that of the laser cavity frequency which results in pulse repetition rates of either 500 MHz or 1 GHz with slight changes of the cavity length. The GaP mode locker has extremely high modulation depth resulting in a stable modelocked operation with only 100 mW of rf power. Sixty milliwatts of output power was obtained at a wavelength of 1.064 µm. Pulse durations were limited to 100 ps due to etalon effects in the Nd:YAG rod.

© 1989 Optical Society of America