High power diode pumped femtosecond laser based on ytterbium doped YSO and LSO crystals

Ytterbium-doped yttrium and lutetium oxyorthosilicate (Yb:Y/sub 2/SiO/sub 5/ and Yb:Lu/sub 2/SiO/sub 5/) crystals are now well-known to be particularly suitable for directly diode-pumped solid-state lasers which leads to robust, compact and efficient devices. For the well-known reasons of simple electronic structure, suitability with high-power InGaAs laser diodes, good thermal conductivity on the one hand, and the broad emission bands of Yb/sup 3+/ in some matrices on the other one they seem particularly well suited for the efficient generation (few hundreds milliwatts) of ultra-short laser pulses.