Abstract

Cr:Colquiriite oscillators/amplifiers (i) enable efficient direct diode pumping with very low cost diodes around 650 nm, (ii) have broad emission bandwidths around 800 nm supporting sub-10-fs pulses (iii) have relatively long upper state lifetimes enabling energy storage, and (iv) have lower n₂ values that reduces unwanted nonlinear processes such as self-focusing and allows higher energy extraction per unit volume. These make Cr: Colquiriite amplifiers one of the leading efficient and low-cost alternatives to current Ti:Sapphire technology. Nevertheless, to our knowledge, so far the highest pulse energy obtained from a diode pumped Cr:Colquiriite amplifier is only 10 μJ [1]. We believe that, the relatively low performance of these initial studies is due to the high passive losses of the cavity optics and low-brightness of the pump diodes that were available at that time.

© 2015 IEEE