High-power femtosecond pulse generation in a passively mode-locked Nd:SrLaAlO4 laser

A high optical quality Nd:SrLaAlO4 (Nd:SLA) crystal was grown using the Czochralski method and showed broad fluorescence spectrum with a full width at half maximum value of 34 nm, which is beneficial for generating femtosecond laser pulses. A stable diode-pumped passively mode-locked femtosecond Nd:SLA laser with 458 fs pulse duration was achieved for the first time at a central wavelength of 1077.9 nm. The average output power of the continuous-wave mode-locked laser was 520 mW and the repetition rate was 78.5 MHz.