Generation of 30-fs pulses from a diode-pumped graphene mode-locked Yb:CaYAlO4 laser

TL;DR

This paper reports the generation of the shortest graphene mode-locked laser pulses at 1068 nm, achieving 30 fs duration with high stability, demonstrating graphene's potential for ultrafast laser applications.

Contribution

It presents the first demonstration of 30 fs pulses from a diode-pumped Yb:CaYAlO4 laser using monolayer graphene as a saturable absorber, achieving the shortest pulses for such lasers.

Findings

Achieved 30 fs pulse duration at 1068 nm

Demonstrated stable mode locking with high spectral bandwidth

First report of sub-40 fs pulses in graphene mode-locked Yb lasers

Abstract

Stable 30 fs pulses centered at 1068 nm (less than 10 optical cycles) are demonstrated in a diode pumped Yb:CaYAlO4 laser by using high-quality chemical vapor deposited monolayer graphene as the saturable absorber. The mode locked 8.43 optical-cycle pulses have a spectral bandwidth of ~ 50 nm and a pulse repetition frequency of ~ 113.5 MHz. To our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse ever reported for graphene mode-locked lasers and mode-locked Yb-doped bulk lasers. Our experimental results demonstrate that graphene mode locking is a very promising practical technique to generate few-cycle optical pulses directly from a laser oscillator.