Abstract

We report cw and femtosecond laser operations under diode pumping of a diffusion-bonding heterocomposite Yb-doped crystal: ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}:{\mathrm{SrY}}_4{\left({\mathrm{SiO}}_4\right)}_3\mathrm{O}\Vert {\mathrm{Y}}_2{\mathrm{Al}}_5{\mathrm{O}}_{12}(\mathrm{YAG}\Vert \mathrm{SYS}:\mathrm{Yb})$. To show the advantages of this heterocomposite crystal over classical $\mathrm{Yb}:\mathrm{SYS}$ crystal, we first investigate the high-power cw regime. A cw power of 4.3 W is demonstrated. The femtosecond regime is also investigated, and 1-W-average-power, 130-fs pulses at 1070 nm are produced, which represents, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of an Yb-doped heterocomposite mode-locked laser.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

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