Low cost 60 ps, 1.33 MW peak power, 50 kHz repetition rate pulsed microchip laser fiber amplifier system

In this paper, we present a simple, inexpensive and compact picosecond laser source consisting of a monolithic microchip laser and a fiber based double-pass amplifier. The microchip laser consists of a 200 mum thick, 3% doped Nd:YVO
₄
crystal directly glued onto a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. It is pumped with a fiber coupled diode laser at 808 nm and a pump power of 500 mW. The laser generates 60 ps pulses at a repetition rate of 50 kHz and a pulse energy of 0.75 muJ.