Broadly tunable high-power operation of an all-solid-state titanium-doped sapphire laser system

Broadly tunable and high-power operation of a titanium-doped sapphire laser is obtained with a diode-laser-pumped frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser as the pump source. A maximum broadband (FWHM = 25 nm) output pulse energy of 720 microJ at 795 nm in a TEM(00) mode is obtained for 1850 microJ of energy of 532-nm pump light. A minimum pulse duration of 7 ns is obtained from a 40-mm-long cavity. With the use of an intracavity prism, the Ti:sapphire laser is tunable continuously over the 696-1000-nm spectral range (with three different mirror sets).