A diode-pumped picosecond mode-locked Yb：YAG ceramic laser is realized with a slope efficiency of 44%. Output power up to 1.04 W is obtained with pulse duration of 10.4 ps at central wavelength of 1 049.5 nm. The standard deviation of maximum output power instability is 0.00453.
We experimentally demonstrate a diode-pumped passively mode-locked femtosecond laser with yb3＋-doped yttrium lanthanum oxide ceramic. Mode-locking is achieved by using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror, and intraeavity dispersion is compensated by a pair of SF6 prisms. Laser pulses as short as 357 fs at a central wavelength of 1 075 nm are obtained. The maximum average output power is 670 mW under 4.5 W of pumping power with a slope efficiency of 20%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse generated from Yb-doped yttrium lanthanum oxide ceramic lasers with a sub-500 fs pulse duration.
This paper investigates experimentally high-order harmonic generation （HHG） of neon gas with 5-fs and 25-fs driving laser pulses. It has been demonstrated that the cutoff energy of the harmonic extreme ultraviolet photons is extended to 131 eV and the HHC spectrum near the cutoff region becomes continuum as the driving laser pulse duration is 5 fs; whereas much lower cutoff photon energy and discrete harmonic spectrum near the cutoff region are presented as the laser pulse duration is 25 fs. The results can be explained by the fact that neutral atoms can be exposed to more intense laser field before they are depleted by ionization because of the extremely short rising time of the few-cycle pulse. The 5-fs driving laser pulse paves the way of generation of coherent x-ray in the water window and single attosecond pulse.
