Abstract
We report what is to our knowledge a new source of femtosecond pulses in the mid-infrared, based on a Kerr-lens mode-locked (KLM) laser at 2303 nm. An undoped ZnSe substrate was included in the resonator to provide enhanced nonlinear phase modulation during KLM operation. The laser was end-pumped with a continuous-wave : sapphire laser at 780 nm. With 880 mW of pump power, we generated 514-fs pulses at a pulse repetition rate of 41.5 MHz with an average power of 14.4 mW. The spectral width (full width at half-maximum) was measured as 15.4 nm, giving a time-bandwidth product of 0.44. We foresee that the wide availability of this gain medium, as well as the straightforward pumping scheme near 800 nm, will make 2.3-μm, mode-locked lasers versatile sources of ultrashort pulses in the mid-infrared.
© 2017 Optical Society of America
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