Direct diode-pumped laser operation of Cr(3+)- doped LiInGeO(4) crystals.

Quasi-continuous wave (cw) laser action has been demonstrated by direct diode pumping of a new extremely broadband Cr(3+)-doped crystal. In contrast to previous works, where large-frame pump lasers have been employed, we have shown that low-power direct diode pumping of LiInGeO(4) is feasible, opening up the way for realizing compact and efficient laser sources for telecommunication applications.

Sub-10-fs mirror-dispersion-controlled Ti:sapphire laser.

We demonstrate the generation of nearly bandwidth-limited 8-fs optical pulses near 0.8 microm from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser oscillator, using chirped dielectric mirrors for dispersion control. The mode-locking performance is described, and limitations are discussed.

Sub-20-fs, kilohertz-repetition-rate Ti:sapphire amplifier.

A simple four-pass Ti:sapphire amplifier is seeded by sub-10-fs pulses generated from a mirror-dispersion-controlled Ti:sapphire laser. Pulses of 17-18-fs duration with energies up to 50 and 100 microJ have been produced at repetition rates of 2 and 1 kHz, respectively. Because of the absence of a pulse stretcher, this performance is achieved from an extremely compact system.

Generation of 0.1-TW 5-fs optical pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate.

A compact all-solid-state femtosecond Ti:sapphire oscillator¿amplifier system using no grating-based pulse stretcher produces 20-fs, 1.5-mJ pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate. The pulses are subsequently compressed in a hollow-fiber chirped-mirror compressor. The system delivers bandwidth-limited 5-fs, 0.5-mJ pulses at 780 nm in a diffraction-limited beam.

Amplitude and chirp characterization of high-power laser pulses in the 5-fs regime.

Frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) based on second-harmonic generation has been demonstrated to be capable of high-fidelity measurement of the electric-field envelope and of the temporal evolution of the instantaneous carrier frequency of 0.1-TW 5-fs pulses without the need for any correction for systematic experimental errors. At a 1-kHz repetition rate, pulse energies of a few microjoules are sufficient for reliable FROG characterization of pulses with durations down to the single-cycle regime. The results obtained reveal that carefully designed hollow-fiber chirped-mirror compressors are able to deliver high-power sub-10-fs pulses with a smooth Gaussianlike leading edge that has an intensity contrast of approximately 10(-2) .