Diode-Pumped Passively Mode-Locked YVO 4 /Nd:YVO 4 Composite Crystal Laser

We report on a passively mode-locked YVO 4 /Nd:YVO 4 composite crystal laser using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. At a pump power of 21.39 W, we achieve a 3.51 W average output power from a continuous wave mode-locked laser with a repetition rate of passively mode-locked pulse of 89 MHz and a pulse width of 38.3 ps. The pulse energy and peak power are 39.4 nJ and 1.03 kW, respectively. Our experiment results show that a composite crystal is an excellent laser crystal for mode locking.