Synchronously pumped continuous-wave dye laser pumped by a mode-locked frequency-doubled diode-pumped Nd:YLF laser

We report an efficient technique of resonant frequency doubling of a mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:YLF laser for producing 250 mW of continuous-wave mode-locked output in the green region of the spectrum. The Nd:YLF laser, which was pumped by a 3-W laser-diode array, was mode locked by using frequency-modulation mode locking to produce 650-mW output in pulses of 12-ps duration at a repetition rate of 225 MHz. This output was resonantly doubled by using MgO:LiNbO(3) in an external ring enhancement cavity. Doubling efficiencies of as much as 56% were achieved to produce usable mode-locked output of 250 mW at 523.5 nm. The frequency-doubled output was used to pump synchronously a continuous-wave mode-locked Rhodamine R6G dye laser. The dye laser produced pulses of approximately 1-ps duration and an output power of 40 mW.