Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4 laser with low temperature GaAs saturable absorber

Abstract Low temperature GaAs (LT-GaAs) was successfully grown at the temperature of 550 °C by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy on a semi-insular GaAs substrate. With such an absorber as well as an output coupler we obtain Q-switched mode-locked (QML) 1064 nm Nd:GdVO 4 laser pumped by diode laser with high repetition rate, formed with a simple flat–flat cavity. The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope increased from 100 to 660 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.28 to 7.29 W. The mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of ∼1.36 GHz. A maximum average output power of 953 mW was obtained. The dependence of the operational parameters on the pump power was also investigated experimentally.