Saturable Bragg reflector self-starting passive mode locking of a Cr(4+):YAG laser pumped with a diode-pumped...

We demonstrate self-starting passive mode locking of a Cr (4+):YAG laser, using an intracavity nonlinear mirror as a saturable absorber. The pump source is a diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser. Output pulses are centered at 1541 nm, with 26-nm spectral bandwidth and 110-fs pulse width. Output powers of 70 mW are obtained with 8 W of pump power. This mode locking technique is compared with Kerr-lens mode locking.