Passive mode locking of a diode-pumped, hybrid Nd:phosphate glass and Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser

Summary form only given. Hybrid lasers provide a new way to utilize the useful properties of different laser media to control and to improve laser performance. Nd:glass has a broad linewidth and can produce less than 100 fs pulses. Due to its partially inhomogeneous broadening, its lasing spectrum is often not well shaped and stable. It was demonstrated in an actively mode-locked hybrid Nd:phosphate glass and Nd:YLF laser that a small gain from Nd:YLF can stabilize the lasing spectrum and Nd:phosphate glass facilitates more easily spectral broadening, producing coherent and short laser pulses. We have demonstrated that a gain from Nd:YVO/sub 4/ can also exert effective control of Nd:phosphate glass lasing spectrum in a diode-pumped CW hybrid Nd:phosphate glass and Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser, even when the line centers of the two laser media separate by as far apart as 10 nm. In the paper we report passive mode locking of a diode pumped, hybrid Nd:phosphate glass and Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser.