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Continuous-wave, quasi-continuous-wave, gain-switched, and femtosecond

burst-mode operation of multi-mode diode-pumped Cr:LiSAF lasers

Article  in  Journal of the Optical Society of America B · October 2016

DOI: 10.1364/JOSAB.33.002105

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CW, Quasi-CW, Gain-Switched, and Femtosecond
Burst-Mode Operation of Multi-Mode Diode-Pumped
Cr:LiSAF Lasers
UMIT DEMIRBAS,1,* DURMUS ALP EMRE ACAR1
1 Laser
Technology Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Antalya International University, 07190 Antalya, Turkey
*Corresponding author: umit79@alum.mit.edu
Received XX Month XXXX; revised XX Month, XXXX; accepted XX Month XXXX; posted XX Month XXXX (Doc. ID XXXXX); published XX Month XXXX

In this study, we have investigated power scaling potential of diode-pumped Cr:LiSAF lasers upon pulsed pumping
at varying pump pulsewidths (5 s to 10 s) and duty cycles (2% to 100%). Compared to continuous-wave (cw)
pumping, pulsed pumping allows the laser crystal to cool down while the pump is in off state, and enables better
control of thermal effects and efficient laser operation in the pump active period. Depending on the parameters of
the pulsed pump source, Cr:LiSAF laser operates in cw, quasi-cw, or gain switched regimes. In cw laser
experiments, using a 20 mm long crystal with a relatively low Cr-doping of 0.8%, output powers as high as 2.4 W
could be obtained at an absorbed pump power of 5.5 W. In quasi-cw operation, laser output powers as high as 3.1
W have been achieved, which represents a 30% improvement compared to cw case. In gain switched operation,
pulses in the 1.35-5 s range with peak powers up to 30 W have been observed at kHz repletion rates. Moreover,
pulsed pumping has also been investigated in a cavity that is mode-locked with a saturable Bragg reflector, to
investigate the advantage of femtosecond burst-mode operation compared to cw mode-locking. In femtosecond
burst mode operation, 250-fs long pulses around 815 nm at a 106 MHz repletion rate with a burst average power of
1.1 W has been acquired. The corresponding pulse energy and peak power of the femtosecond pulses were 10.3 nJ and 36.6 kW,
respectively. This represents a 2 fold improvement in pulse energies compared to cw mode-locking. The power
levels obtained in this study was limited by the available pump power, and future studies in this direction has the
potential to scale the output powers of the Cr:LiSAF laser above 10-W level. © 2016 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (140.3538) Lasers, pulsed; (140.4050) Mode-locked lasers; (140.3580) Lasers, solid-state; (140.3480) Lasers, diode pumped;
(140.6810) Thermal effects.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.99.099999

light pulses via mode-locking [5-7]. Via second and third harmonic
1. INTRODUCTION generation, the laser output can be shifted into the visible and
ultraviolet portions of the spectrum [8, 9]. Furthermore, it is possible
Cr+3 ion has been shown to lase in many different host materials: to
to grow Cr:LiSAF crystal with very low passive losses (0.2%/cm) [10],
name a few the list includes Emerald, Alexandrite, Borate, GSGG, YSAG,
utilizing lasing thresholds as low as 2 mW, and slope efficiencies above
GGG, YSGG and LiCAF [1]. Payne et al. argues that this is because Cr+3
50% in continuous-wave (cw) laser operation [4]. This enables the
ion is inclined to integrate into the desired oxidation state, and
construction of high-Q cavities with large number of intracavity
luminescence efficiently, which increases the probably of lasing action
photons, which simplifies minimization of laser noise such as timing
[1]. Among these rich host alternatives, LiSrAlF6 (LiSAF) has been
jitter [11] and boosts up efficiencies in intracavity nonlinear
attracting great deal of attention [1]. Lasing action has been first
conversion [9]. Moreover, Cr:LiSAF is not effected by concentration
attained in Cr:LiSAF in 1989 [1]. Like many other Cr+3–doped
quenching, and could be even doped with 100% Cr (LiSrCrF6), and still
materials, Cr:LiSAF posses broad absorption bands in the visible where
allows for efficient laser operation [12]. This enables engineering of the
low-cost laser diodes around 650 nm could be used for efficient
doping concentration as desired for different applications None of the
pumping [2, 3]. Compared to other pumping options, diode pumping
other known Cr+3–doped hosts that emit in this wavelength region
usually further provides additional advantages such as high electrical-
offer efficient lasing action in such a broad wavelength range,
to-optical conversion efficiency and compactness. Cr:LiSAF also owns
concentrating research interest over Cr:LiSAF. This also makes
broad emission bands in the near infrared [1], that facilitates widely
tunable laser operation (770-1110 nm)[4], and generation of 10-fs
Cr:LiSAF the strongest competitor to the existing Ti:Sapphire
technology.
On the other hand, Cr:LiSAF display glass-like properties in terms of
mechanical and thermal specifications [13]. First of all, unlike
Ti:Sapphire, Cr:LiSAF suffers from relatively strong excited state
absorption and Auger upconversion process [14], which obstruct
efficient usage of pump power, and lead to increased thermal load on
produce identical and synchronous pump pulses. The timing dynamics
of the system was monitored using a 1 GHz silicon photo detector
(Thorlabs, DET02AFC), and a 500 MHz digital oscilloscope (Tektronix,
DPO 3054). In quasi-cw operation, the diodes could be overdriven to
generate incident pump powers above 8-W at low-duty cycles.

MMD-3

MMD-4
the crystal [15, 16]. On top of that, thermal conductivity of Cr:LiSAF (3.1
W/K.m [13]) is about 9 times lower than that of Ti:Sapphire [17], 4.5 mm
which is hindering efficient removal of thermal load., creating elevated M1 M2
temperatures in the focused volume. Lastly, Cr:LiSAF has a fracture 100 mm 100 mm
100 mm
100 mm
Cr:LiSAF
toughness that is 8 times lower and a thermal shock resistance that is MMD-1 MMD-2
55 times lower than of Ti:Sapphire, resulting in crystal damage at high 4.5 mm PBS PBS 4.5 mm
pump intensities [17]. Hence, power scaling of Cr:LiSAF lasers has been M3
(cw)
challenging and attracted considerable deal of research interest [9, 16, M7 M8 OC
18-27]. GTI GTI

So far, in most of the power scaling studies performed with diode-

pumped Cr:LiSAF lasers, cw operation have been explored. In this M9
SBR

study, we have investigated the benefits of pulsed pumping in further 150 mm

power scaling of Cr.LiSAF lasers. In pulsed pumping, the duty cycle of
the pump source can be lowered to minimize thermal effects in the Fig. 1. Schematic of the multi-mode diode (MMD) pumped Cr:LiSAF
Cr:LiSAF laser, which can improve laser performance, and prevent laser that is used in pulsed pumping experiments. For mode-locking,
unwanted effects such as crystal damage. Pulsed operation also the flat high reflector (M3) was removed and the cavity was extended
minimizes the thermal effects in the pump diodes which increases to include the GTI mirrors and the SBR. PBS: polarizing beam splitter
their lifetime, and enables diode operation at higher power levels. cube, OC: output coupler, SBR: saturable Bragg reflector, GTI: Gires-
When pumped with a pulsed source, for pump pulsewidths that is Tournois interferometer mirror.
relatively long, the laser operates in “quasi-cw” regime [28]. When the
pump pulses are shorter than upper state lifetime of the gain medium
The multi-mode diodes had an emitter size of 1 m x 150 m
(which is around 67 microsecond for Cr:LiSAF), the laser run in “gain-
(fast/sagittal x slow/tangential axes), with diffraction limited output in
switching” mode, and often a single clean short pulse is obtained [29].
the sagittal axis, and an M2 of 10 in the tangential axis (Fig. 2). A built-in
Moreover, in ultrashort pulse generation, a similar effect can be used to
cylindrical fiber microlens with a focal length of 100 m was used to
generate a group of ultrashort pulses (a burst of fs pulses), and this
lower the divergence of the diode output in the fast axis, to minimize
operation mode is named as burst–mode operation [30, 31]. Laser
astigmatism at the focus (not shown in the Fig. 1). Aspheric lenses of
sources that operate in pulsed mode could provide high peak powers
focal length of f = 4.5 mm was used to collimate the output of the
even at moderate average power levels and are useful for many
multimode diodes. Two 100 mm focal length achromatic doublets
applications [31]; like material ablation[32], tissue processing[33], and
were used to focus the pump beams to a spot size of around 25 m ×
pulsed laser deposition [34]. A recent study further shows that
70 m inside the crystal.
compared to cw fs sources, a burst of fs pulses can actually improve the
efficiency of the material removal process by an order of magnitude in
ablation applications [35]. In the experiments, we have investigated
pulsed pumping of Cr:LiSAF lasers and we have shown that, compared
to cw pumping, pulsed pumping enables significant performance
improvement in both quasi-cw and femtosecond burst-mode
operation. We believe that as the diode brightness continue to
improve, future studies with Cr:LiSAF gain media will head towards
more to the pulsed pumping option to cope with detrimental thermal
effects.

2. EXPERIMENTAL
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the diode-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser cavity
that is used in the laser experiments. Four linearly-polarized single-
emitter multi-mode diodes (MMD-1 to MMD-4) from n-Light
Photonics were used as the pump source. The diodes had c-type Fig. 2. Picture showing the single emitter multimode diode with a c-
mounts which were kept at a heat sink temperature of 20 C, using mount package. The diode has a built-in cylindrical fiber microlens to
thermoelectrically cooled diode holders (Newport LDM-4409). During collimate the diode output in the fast axis.
cw operation, each diode provided 1.8-W of pump power around 665
nm at typical operating currents of 2.2 A. An arbitrary signal generator In the cw, quasi-cw and gain-switched laser experiments, an
was used to generate square shaped pulses with adjustable width and astigmatically compensated X cavity with two curved pump mirrors
duty cycle (AATech, AWG-1020). The signal from the signal generator (M1 and M2, R = 100 mm), a flat end mirror (M3) and an output
was fed into all the diode drivers simultaneously (ILX, LDX-3565B) to coupler (OC) were used. As the gain media, we have investigated two
different Cr:LiSAF samples that were available during the experiments:
(i) a 15-mm-long, 0.8% Cr-doped, and (ii) a 20-mm-long, 0.8% Cr-
doped sample. Both of the laser crystals absorbed more than 98% of
the 660 nm pump light for the TE polarization. For the TM polarization
the first crystal had an absorption of 87%, where as longer one
absorbed around 96%. The crystals were 1.5 mm thick and mounted
with indium foil in a copper holder under water cooling at 15 C.
An AlGaAs based saturable Bragg reflector (SBR) with a central
wavelength of 800 nm was used to initiate and sustain mode-locking.
The SBR consisted of twenty five pairs of Al0.95Ga0.05As /Al0.17Ga0.83As
quarter wave layers for the Bragg mirror stack, five layers of 6 nm thick
GaAs quantum wells as the saturable absorber, and two pairs of SiO2-
TiO2 layers as a high reflection (HR) coating. The calculated modulation
depth of the 800-nm SBR was approximately 0.6 ± 0.15% [36]. SBR
mode-locked laser was self-starting and robust against environmental
fluctuations. Cr3+:LiSAF posses a group velocity dispersion (GVD) of
+25 fs2/mm, and this creates a dispersion of approximately +1000 fs2
in one cavity round trip for the 20 mm long sample. This amount of
positive dispersion is hard to balance using typical double chirped
mirrors, which provides -50 fs2 to -100 fs2 of group delay dispersion
(GDD) in each bounce. Hence, two Gires-Tournois interferometer
mirrors (GTI, M7-M8) from Layertec with GVD of -500 fs2 per bounce
in 790-820 nm region were utilized for dispersion compensation.
Twelve-bounce on the GTI mirror in one round-trip set the total round-
trip cavity dispersion to around -5000 fs2. A GTI mirror set with a
central bandwidth around 860 nm is closer to the gain peak of
Cr:LiSAF, and will be more suitable/efficient for mode-locking, but was
not available during the experiments. A home-built autocorrelator was
used to measure the width of the femtosecond pulses.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 CONTINUOUS WAVE LASER RESULTS
In this subsection, we would like to first discuss the continuous-wave
lasing results taken with the multi-mode diode pumped Cr:LiSAF laser.
Our aim in doing that is to confirm the presence of thermal effects in
cw Cr:LiSAF lasers even at moderate pump powers of around 5 W.
Basically, the thermal effects that has been observed in cw operation
has motivated us to perform the quasi-cw studies, which will be
discussed in the next sub-sections.
Figure 3 shows the measured cw efficiency data obtained from the
multimode-diode pumped Cr:LiSAF laser at different output coupling.
The 15-mm long, 0.8% Cr-doped sample was used in this set of
experiments. Note that this crystal has a very low Cr-concentration
already to distribute the thermal load to a larger volume that is
possible via pumping from both sides (earlier studies in the literature
have used Cr:LiSAF crystal with Cr-doping values of 0.8%[19], 1.5%
[20, 21, 24], 3% [20, 21], and 5.5% [20]). However, as can be seen from
the nonlinearity in the curves, thermal effects are still present and they
are significantly limiting the laser performance. Also, we have not
applied the full pump power while taking the data in Fig. 3, to prevent
possible damage to the crystal via overheating. This finding already
indicates that, even at these pump powers, the local temperature
inside Cr:LiSAF crystal approaches 70 C which represents a critical
threshold for lifetime quenching [15]. Once the crystal heats up to
these critical temperatures, lifetime starts to decrease sharply, and this
increases the thermal load on the crystal further in a nonlinear manner
and one eventually damages the crystal due to overheating (often a
cracking of the crystal occurs due to the large difference of thermal
expansion coefficient in the different axes of the uni-axial Cr:LiSAF
crystal)[13]. Basically, the observed decrease in the upper state lifetime
limits the output powers by increasing the laser threshold (this shows
itself as a decrease in slope efficiency in Fig. 3). As a side note, thermal
lensing in Cr:LiSAF is measured to be relatively low[25], and is not a
very big concern and this overlaps with our observations during the
laser experiments (realignment of the laser cavity was not required at
different pump powers).
2000
41%
2%
36%
Output Power (mW)
1500 1%
0.75% 31%
1000
500
0.8 %, 15 mm
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Absorbed Pump Power (mW)
Fig. 3. Measured cw laser performance of multi-mode diode pumped
Cr:LiSAF laser using the 15 mm long, 0.8% Cr-doped crystal. Three
different output couplers were used in the study, and the slope
efficiencies measured with each output coupler is indicated in the
graph. Full pump power could not be applied due to thermal effects.
Another point to note here is, as the output coupling increases, the
thermal effects get stronger, and this is the reason for the unexpected
decrease in slope efficiency at high output coupling (Fig. 3). This is a
well known effect in Cr:LiSAF, and is due to the presence of Auger
upconversion [15, 16, 25]. In laser gain media with Auger
upconversion, the lifetime of the upper laser level not only depends on
temperature but also on the degree of inversion. As inversion
increases, the Auger upconversion rate increases, lowering the lifetime
of the upper laser level. At higher output coupling, the intracavity
power levels decrease, and as a result the steady state value of the
population inversion of the upper laser level increases. This increases
the Auger upconversion rate, and results in degradation of laser
performance.
As a partial solution to the thermal problems, one can use longer
Cr:LiSAF crystals with lower chromium concentration. Unfortunately,
the lowest available Cr-doping of the Cr.LiSAF crystals in the market
during this study was 0.8%. Hence, we have tested usage of longer
samples with the same chromium concentration. As an example, Fig. 4
shows the measured laser efficiency of the 15 mm and the 20 mm long
0.8%-Cr-doped samples together for comparison. Note that with the
usage of the longer crystal, thermal load is distributed over a larger
volume which enables an improvement in thermal effects. As can be
seen, the slope efficiency of the laser increased from 41% to 50% and
the longer crystal allowed application of more pump power into the
system. Note here that the measured slope efficiency here (50%) is
close to the intrinsic slope efficiency of Cr:LiSAF medium (54%),
indicating good mode matching between the pump and cavity modes.
Overall, the obtainable cw output power levels increased from 1.8 W to
2.4 W. Even though this approach works, it has its limitations. First of
all, as the crystal length increases, the passive losses of the crystal also
increase, and at some point, this will start to decrease the laser
performance. Here, Cr:LiSAF has an advantage because it has very low
passive loss (0.2% per cm). For example a similar approach will not
work as well in Ti:Sapphire due to the higher passive loss of the
crystals (2% per cm) [25]. Moreover, for a longer crystal, optimum
laser spot size is larger, which increases the lasing threshold. Also, in
regenerative amplifier applications this will decrease the extraction
efficiency of the system. Lastly, a long crystal creates large amount of
self phase modulation, and balancing the overall dispersion of the
cavity gets challenging in mode-locked lasers. Despite all these
disadvantages, we believe that further power scaling of cw Cr:LiSAF
lasers to 10 W levels will require long samples with low chromium
concentration.
2500
50%
0.8%, 15 mm
2000
Output Power (mW)
0.8%, 20 mm
41%
1500
0.75% OC
1000
500
0 indicated for each case. The response of the diode pump laser is also
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Absorbed Pump Power (mW)
Fig. 4. Measured cw laser performance of multi-mode diode pumped
Cr:LiSAF laser at an output coupling of 0.75%. Two different Cr:LiSAF
crystals (15 and 20 mm long with 0.8% Cr-doping) were used for
comparison. Slope efficiencies measured with each crystal is indicated
in the graph.
3.2 QUASI-CONTINUOUS-WAVE and GAIN-SWITCHED LASER
RESULTS
As discussed in the previous section, glass-like thermo mechanical
properties of Cr:LiSAF gain media creates difficulties in power scaling
in pure cw operation, resulting in efficiency drop and even permanent
damage to the crystal. Prompted with this, we have studied quasi-cw
and gain-switched operation of the multi-mode diode pumped
Cr:LiSAF lasers in detail. For both cases, the pump diodes are turned
on for a specific time interval to obtain lasing, and then they are turned
off for some other period of time for efficient cooling of the system. In
our studies, we have adjusted the pump pulsewidth (5 s to 10 s) and
the duty cycle of the pump pulses (2% to 100%) in a broad dynamic
range to better understand the physics of the laser system.
As an example, Fig. 5 shows the measured time dynamic of the
Cr:LiSAF laser output, for trigger pulsewidths of 12 s, 25 s, 45 s,
200 s, 1 ms, 20 ms, 2 s and 10 s (by trigger pulsewidth we mean the
pulsewidth of the trigger pulses from the arbitrary signal generator).
The response of the diode lasers is also shown. It is worth mentioning
here that the pulsewidth of the diode pump laser might be slightly
different than the pulsewidth of the trigger signal especially for very
short trigger pulsewidth mostly due to the limited response time of
diode drivers (e.g. see the curve for the 12 s trigger signal in Fig. 5).
However, the effect is not very significant and it is actually completely
negligible for longer pulses; hence, to simplify the discussion, we will
not differentiate between trigger signal pulsewidth and diode pump
pulsewidth during the discussion below.
Laser 12 us
1 ms
Diode
Trigger
25 us 20 ms
45 us 2s
200 us
10 s
Fig. 5. Measured variation of Cr:LiSAF lasers output in time domain for
the quasi-cw (or gain switched) mode of operation at several different
trigger pulsewidth values. The pulsewidth of the trigger signal is
shown. The data is taken at a duty cycle of 20%. Cr:LiSAF laser
operates in gain-switched mode for trigger pulsewidths shorter than
about 50 s, and in quasi-cw mode for longer pulses.
As can be seen from Fig. 5, for short pump pulsewidths, in gain-
switched operation, where the laser is in transient regime, one can
have the benefit of generating single Cr:LiSAF laser pulses with
relatively short pulsewidth and high peak power (e.g. see 12 s and 25
s curves in Fig. 5). As the pump pulsewidth increases, the Cr:LiSAF
laser gets closer to steady state, and the output pulse start to follow the
shape of the pump pulse (e.g. see 200 s curve in Fig. 5). Also at even
longer pump pulsewidths (e.g. see 2 s curve in Fig. 5), one can clearly
observe output power fluctuations due to thermal effects (the diode
power also decreases with thermal effects, which in turn further
reduces the Cr:LiSAF laser power).
As a starting point to our pulsed pumping discussion, Fig. 6 shows
the measured slope efficiency of the Cr:LiSAF laser in the quasi-cw
mode, using the thermally more problematic 15 mm-long 0.8% Cr-
doped crystal, at duty cycle values ranging from 2% to 100 % (100 %
corresponds to the pure cw operation, as in Fig. 3). A 2% output
coupler was used on purpose to better investigate thermal issues, since
thermal effects at high output coupling is worse as discussed earlier. A
pump pulsewidth of 2 ms was employed. Note that the measured laser
power in Fig. 6 indicates the lasers power while the laser is on (power
during the cw burst), and it is not the average power of the laser. When
we look at Fig. 6, first of all we observe that, quasi-cw operation
enabled the usage of more pump power, compared to cw pumping,
due to the improvements in thermal effects (usable absorbed pump
power increased from 4.1 W to 5.45 W). Secondly, as the duty cycle
decreases, the time interval between each pump pulse increases and
consequently the laser founds more time to cool down. As a result, as
duty cycle is lowered, obtainable slope efficiency from the laser has
increased. Specifically the laser slope efficiency improved from 31% to
46%, when the duty cycle of the laser was lowered from 100% to 2%.
As a result of these benefits, the obtainable power levels from Cr:LiSAF
laser with the 0.8% Cr-doped crystal using the 2% output coupler,
increased from around 1.2 W to 2.35 W. It is worth reminding that the an absorbed pump power of around 6.4 W (during the cw burst). This
intrinsic slope efficiency of Cr:LiSAF gain media is 53% [1], which we believe is the highest output power ever obtained from diode-
indicates that some minor thermal effects are still present even at 2% pumped Cr:LiSAF laser systems. The output power we have obtained
duty cycle operation (using 2 ms pulsewidths). here is limited by the available pump power. We believe that, the
output of cw and quasi-cw Cr:LiSAF lasers could be further scaled to 10
W level in the future studies by using higher power pump diodes with
2500 46% improved brightness and by employing even longer Cr:LiSAF crystals
2% (30-40 mm), with Cr-doping levels below 0.85%.
20%
Laser output power (mW)

2000
40% 6
50% 0.15%

Laser pulsewidth (s)

70% 5 0.35%
1500
100%
0.75%
31%
4 2%
1000 3%
3
2 % OC
500
0.8 %, 15 mm 2
(a)
0 1
0 1500 3000 4500 6000 5 10 15 20 25 30
Absorbed pump power (mW) Trigger pulsewidth (s)

Fig. 6. Measured variation of the quasi-cw laser performance of the

Cr:LiSAF laser as a function of duty cycle of the pump pulses. A pump 1000
pulsewidth of 2 ms, an output coupling of 2% has been used along with
the 15 mm long Cr:LiSAF crystal. Slope efficiencies measured at 2%
Laser pulsewidth (s)

and 100% duty cycle were indicated in the graph. structured pulses
100 clean pulses

3500
52%
10 2 % OC
Laser Output Power (mw)

3000 10%
100%
2500 (b)
50% 1
2000
1 10 100 1000
1500 Trigger pulsewidth (s)

1000
500
0 transmissions ranging from 0.15% to 3%, at a duty cycle of 20% using
0 2000
Absorbed Pump Power (mw)
Fig. 7. Measured variation of the quasi-cw laser performance of the
Cr:LiSAF laser at duty cycles of 10% and 100%. A pump pulsewidth of
2 ms, an output coupling of 0.75% has been used along with the 20
mm long Cr:LiSAF crystal.
Similarly, Fig. 7 shows the measured efficiencies curves of the quasi-
cw Cr:LiSAF laser taken with the 20 mm-long 0.8% Cr-doped crystal at
duty cycle values of 10% to 100 % (100 % corresponds to the pure cw
operation, in Fig. 4). A 0.7% output coupler was used, which is close to
the optimum output coupling for this configuration. When the duty
cycle is decreased from 100% to 10%, the slope efficiency of the laser
increased from 50% to 52%. This efficiency is very close to the intrinsic
slope efficiency of the Cr:LiSAF material (53% [1]) and indicates that
thermal effects are negligible for this configuration. We have also
overdriven the pump diodes, to test the linearity of the curve at higher
pump powers and achieved a quasi-cw laser output power of 3.1 W at
0.75 % OC
Fig. 8. (a) Measured variation of Cr:LiSAF laser pulsewidth in gain-
0.8 %, 20 mm switched operation as a function of trigger pulsewidth (pump diode
pulsewidth). The data was taken using 5 different output couplers with
4000 6000 8000 the 15 mm long Cr:LiSAF crystal. (b) For the 2% output coupler, a
wider range of operation is also shown which includes the region with
structured/rectangular pulses (namely quasi-cw operation region).
As mentioned earlier, by exciting the system with pump pulses that
are shorter than the upper state lifetime of the laser gain medium, we
could obtain single clean gain-switched pulsing from the Cr:LiSAF laser
(e.g. see 12 s and 25 s curves in Fig. 5). Fig. 8 (a) shows the variation
of the measured Cr:LiSAF laser pulsewidth as a function of trigger
signal width. The data is taken at the full incident pump power (7.2 W)
using the 15 mm long crystal, employing various different output
coupling, at a duty cycle of 20%. For pump pulsewidths shorter than 6
s, lasing was not stable (unstable pulsing), since the energy from each
pulse was barely enough to beat the lasing threshold. For pulsewidth
longer than 25-30 s, the Cr:LiSAF laser produced structured pulses,
with rectangular shapes (e.g. see 45 s and 200 s curves in Fig. 5). Fig.
8(b), which is taken using the 2% output coupler, shows a wider range
of operation for the pump pulsewidth, where one can see the variation
of laser pulsewidth in both gain-switched (transient) and quasi-cw
(steady state) operation regions. As can be seen from Fig. 8, clean gain-
switched pulses with pulsewidths in the 1.5-5 s could be generated
for applied pump pulsewidths in the 5 s - 20 s range. As expected,
the laser generates shorter pulses at higher output coupling. Using a
3% transmitting output coupler; we could obtain pulses as short as
1.35 s. Further shortening of the pulses into the nanosecond regime
might be feasible by pumping the system using higher power pump
diodes, or better by employing q-switching [37].
Figure 9 (a) shows the measured variation of Cr:LiSAF lasers
average power in quasi-cw operation as a function of pump
pulsewidth. The data is taken at the full incident pump power (7.2 W)
using the 15 mm long crystal, employing various different output
coupling, at a duty cycle of 20%. In Fig 9 (a), calculated peak powers on
the right axis are based on quasi-cw operation assumption (calculated
using: peak power = average power/duty cycle relation). As
mentioned earlier, for short pump pulses this assumption is not
correct; since the laser operates in gain-switched mode, and the laser
pulse is much shorter that the pump pulse as discussed above (also see
the curves in Fig. 5). Fig 9 (b) shows a better estimate for peak powers
using the actually measured pulsewidth data for the 2% output
coupler.
500
Average Power (mW)
In pulsed pumping experiments, lasing could be attained for pump
pulsewidth as short as 1.5 microseconds (lasing threshold energy is
below 10 J). At these pulsewidths, the laser is unstable and produces
irregularly shaped pulses (spikes) in every other period. Pulsing
becomes stable for pump pulsewidths above 5 s and the laser starts
to operate in clean gain-switched mode. Further increase of the pump
pulsewidth pushes the laser into quasi-cw mode, where the laser pulse
shape closely follows the trigger pulsewidth. Note from Fig. 9 (a) that
average laser output powers increase steadily for pump pulsewidths in
the 5 s - 1 ms range, then saturates as the laser gain media can not
store more inversion four pump pulsewidth well above the upper state
laser level lifetime. Also, for pump pulsewidths roughly above 10 ms,
the average powers start to decrease due to the early onset of the
thermal effects which starts to decrease the fluorescence lifetime.
As evident form Fig. 9 (b), gain-switched operation can be used to
scale up the peak powers. As an example, using the 2 % output
coupler, at a trigger pulsewidth of 20 s and at a duty cycle of 20%, the
Cr:LiSAF laser produced 1.75 s long pulses at a repetition rate of 2.5
KHz with up to 310 mW of average power. The corresponding peak
power is then as high as 17.8 W (Fig. 9 (b)). By overdriving the pump
diodes, and by lowering the duty cycle to 5%, peak powers as high as
2500 30 W could also be attained, which corresponds to an order of
magnitude scaling in peak powers compared to cw operation.

400 2000
Peak Power (mW)

1400
300 1500
1200 0.15%
Average Power (mW)
200 1000 0,35%
2% 1000 0.75%
0,75%
100 500 2%
0,35% 800
0,15% (a)
0 0 600
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Trigger pulsewidth (ms)
400

200
20
(a)
0
0 15 30 45 60 75
16
Duty cycle (%)
Peak power (W)

Estimated real peak power

12 2500
Quasi-cw approximation
Peak Power (mW)

8 2 % OC 2000

4 1500

(b) 1000
0
0.15%
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 0,35%
500 0.75%
Trigger pulsewidth (ms) 2% (b)
Fig. 9. (a) Measured variation of Cr:LiSAF laser average power as a 0
function of pump pulsewidth in the quasi-cw mode. The data was 0 15 30 45 60 75
taken using 4 different output couplers with transmissions ranging Duty cycle (%)
from 0.15% to 2%, at a duty cycle of 20% using the 15 mm long
Cr:LiSAF crystal. Peak power calculation is based on quasi-cw Fig. 10. Measured variation of the Cr: LiSAF lasers average and peak
assumption. (b) For the 2% output coupler, calculated peak power of output power as a function of duty cycle in the quasi-cw mode
the pulses as a function of trigger pulsewidth (measured pulsewidth operation. The data was taken using 4 different output couplers with
data, in Fig. 8 (b) is used in the peak power calculation). transmissions ranging from 0.15% to 2%, at a at a pump pulsewidth of
2 ms using the 15 mm long Cr:LiSAF crystal.
 As the last graph of this section, Fig. 10 shows the measured In femtosecond burst-mode operation, Cr:LiSAF laser produced
variation of Cr:LiSAF lasers average power and peak power as a 250-fs long pulses around 815 nm with burst average powers as high
function of duty cycle (by peak power we mean the measured power as 1.1 W at an incident pump power of around 8 W (Fig. 13). The data
of the laser while the pump lasers are on). The data is taken at a pump was taken at a burst frequency of 100 Hz, and at a duty cycle of 20% (2
pulsewidth of 2 ms, in the quasi-cw mode of operation. As expected, at ms pump pulsewidth). Note that the laser average power was only 220
first the average powers increase linearly with increasing duty cycle, mW, minimizing thermal effects, where as the average power of the fs
then deviates from the linear trend as the thermal effects get stronger. pulses during the burst is as high as 1.1 W as indicated above. The
Similarly, the peak power curves show a gradual decrease with repetition rate of the laser was 106 MHz, and the corresponding pulse
increasing duty cycle, showing the presence of thermal effects even at energies and peak powers of the femtosecond pulses were 10.3 nJ and
very low duty cycles values, for the relatively long pump pulsewidths 36.6 kW, respectively. These we believe are the highest pulse energies
used here (2 ms). directly obtained from Cr:LiSAF oscillators to date. The burst width
could be modified from around 100 s to 5 ms, resulting in 10,000 to
3.3 CW MODE-LOCKED and FEMTOSECOND BURST-MODE LASER 500,000 pulses within each burst. The corresponding total burst
RESULTS energy ranges from around 100 J to 5 mJ. The average burst power
In this section, we would like to discuss our femtosecond pulse obtained here in femtosecond burst-mode operation is around 2 times
generation experiments in the quasi-cw pumped Cr:LiSAF laser. To use larger compared to pure cw mode-locked operation due to the
a similar language with the existing literature, we will name this advantages of quasi-cw pumping in terms of thermal effects.
operation regime as femtosecond burst mode-operation (can be also
called quasi-cw mode-locked operation). Here again, the motivation for
80 us
burst mode operation is the limitations on the achievable average 1 ms
powers in cw mode-locked operation due to thermal effects. Earlier, in
cw mode-locking experiments, we have obtained 185-fs long pulses
with an average power of 580 mW from the cw mode-locked Cr:LiSAF
laser (Fig. 11 [9]). The average powers obtained in the cw-mode
locked regime (580 mW) is much lower than what could be achieved
150 us 2 ms
in cw regime (2.4 W). This is partly because of the increased losses of
the mode-locked laser cavity, which now includes the SBR as well as
several bounces on the GTI mirrors. Moreover, increased intracavity
losses lowers the circulating intracavity laser powers, which then
raises the thermal effects via the increased rate of Auger upconversion
process. Hence, thermal effects become more significant in cw mode- 250 us 5 ms
locking experiments, and considerably limits the obtainable average
powers from the Cr:LiSAF laser systems. As a result, femtosecond
burst-mode operation is a promising alternative that can be used for
scaling of the obtainable power levels in mode-locked Cr:LiSAF lasers.

600 1
Fig. 12. Measured variation of Cr:LiSAF lasers output in time domain
Average Power (mW)

450 CWML
0.75 for the femtosecond burst-mode of operation as a function of pump
Intensity (au)

QSML
pulsewidth. The pump pulsewidth is indicated for each case. The data
300 CW
0.5 is taken at a trigger signal period of 10 ms.
150 0.25
(a) (b)
0 0 1 1
0 1500 3000 4500 6000 805 810 815 820 825 830
SHG Intensity (au)

Absorbed Pump Power (mw) Wavelength (nm)

0.75 0.75
Intensity (au)

0.5 0.5
Fig. 11. Performance of the Cr:LiSAF laser in cw mode-locked regime.
The laser produced 185-fs long pulses around 817 nm with an average 0.25 0.25
power of 580 mW using a 1% output coupler and a 20 mm long (a) (b)
Cr:LiSAF crystal[9]. 0 0
805 810 815 820 825 -1000 -500 0 500 1000
Figure 12 shows the measured time domain response of the Wavelength (nm) Delay (fs)
femtosecond Cr:LiSAF laser cavity to pulsed pumping at several
different pump pulse durations using a 1% output coupler. As can be Fig. 13. Performance of the Cr:LiSAF laser in femtosecond burst-mode
seen from the graph, for pump pulsewidth shorter than around 100 s regime: (a) Sample optical spectrum, (b) intensity autocorrelation.
length, the SBR could not find enough time to initiate femtosecond Assuming sech2 shaped pulses, the laser pulsewidth is calculated to
pulsing, and the laser produces a gain-switched pulse with 250-fs long. The pulses are centered around 815 nm. The laser
microsecond pulse length. For longer pulses, in the order of 200 s, we produced an average power of 1.1 W (during the burst) using a 1%
see that, the SBR starts to initiate femtosecond operation. For pump output coupler. The data is taken using 2 ms long pump pulses at a
pulsewidths longer than 250 s, SBR mode-locking is quite stable and duty cycle of 20%.
initiates similar pulse bursts in each trigger. The advantage compared
to cw mode-locking is, thermal effects are minimized and in terms of As mentioned above, we have taken the femtosecond laser results
crystal damage, one can work safely even at higher pump power levels. presented above at a repetition rate of 100 Hz and with a duty cycle of
20%. This corresponds to a pump pulsewidth and burst width of
around 2 ms. One can reduce the pump pulsewidth width further to
around 250 s level and still get a femtosecond pulse burst with a
width of around 100 s as can be seen from Fig. 12 (shorter). Further
reduction of femtosecond burst width was not possible due to the time
required for the laser to initiate fs pulsing. This shows that one can
push the burst frequency to around 1 kHz level keeping the duty cycle
to around 20% to minimize thermal effects. It was possible to increase
the duty cycle to above 20% up to a value of 50% at the expense of
reduced output power levels. Moreover, the repetition rate of the
femtosecond pulses reported here is around 100 MHz. We believe that
this could easily be scaled up to 2-3 GHz level by applying pulsed
pumping to a Cr:LiSAF laser cavity similar to what is described in [38].
Lastly, pulsewidths of 250 fs was obtained in out initial work at a total
round-trip cavity dispersion level of around -5000 fs2. In the
experiments, reducing the net cavity dispersion to around -3000 fs2
level has resulted in shorter pulses; but onset of multiple pulsing has
been observed to the high flounce on the SBR. In future studies, by
using SBRs optimized for high power oscillators [39].
4. CONCLUSION
In summary, we have investigated power scaling potential of Cr.LiSAF
lasers that is pulsed pumped with state of the art multi-mode diodes.
Experimental results have shown that pulsed pumping could be used
for power scaling of Cr:LiSAF lasers especially in femtosecond burst
mode operation where thermal effects are more significant.
Funding Information. The Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey, (TUBITAK, 114F191), European Union Marie Curie
Career Integration Grant (PCIG11-GA-2012-321787) and Thorlabs Inc.
Acknowledgment. We thank Ilyas Baali for his help in some of the
experiments.
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