Sub-350 fs Pulse Generation via Nonlinear Compression With an Nd-Doped Picosecond Laser

We demonstrate the generation of 350 fs pulse by post-compression of a neodymium (Nd)-doped picosecond laser within a single stage bulk multi-pass cell (MPC) device. By meticulous design and precise alignment of the optical path, a record-high number of 125 passes is implemented, resulting in a spectral broadening factor of 16 and a pulse compression factor of 27.1. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first instance of a 300-fs class pulse width being emitted from a single-stage MPC post-compression Nd-doped picosecond laser device. It also has been proven to be applicable for laser processing.