10.5 W single-beam-output passively mode-locked Nd:YVO4 oscillator end-pumped by 808nm laser diode

We demonstrate a 10.5 W passively mode-locked Nd:YVO 4 oscillator end-pumped by 808 nm laser diode. A novel resonator structure with large mode field space is introduced to solve thermal lens effect and semiconductor saturable absorber mirror’s (SESAM) damage, and then we achieve a single-beam-output picosecond pulse laser without inserting any other laser output elements in laser resonator. The repetition rate of mode-locked pulse is 63.4 MHz with 12.9 ps pulse width, corresponding to maximum pulse energy of 166 nJ and peak power of 12.9 kW. In addition, we discover a complete evolution process of pulses from Q-switched mode-locking to continuous wave (CW) mode-locking for the first time.