ALL-SOLID-STATE PICOSECOND TUNABLE SOURCE OF NEAR-INFRARED RADIATION

A quasi-cw diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser, mode locked by a nonlinear mirro r and stabilized by an acousto-optic modulator, has been developed tha t generates 31-ps, 23-mu J pulses. Employing this source with a period ically poled lithium niobate crystal in a traveling-wave geometry, we obtained extracavity frequency conversion with pump depletion of as mu ch as 62% in the near infrared (1.46-1.56 mu m) with a pulse spectral width of 1.5 nm and a beam quality M-2 = 1.7. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.