Self-Starting Kerr-Lens-Modelocked 1-GHz Ti:sapphire Oscillator Pumped by a Single Laser Diode

The commodification of Ti:sapphire lasers is hindered by their complex and expensive pump systems, but the potential of direct laser-diode pumping provides a cost-effective route to making these laser systems more accessible. In the past decade, the biggest challenge of using laser diodes was the effective pump beam shaping, however, with the careful beam management the possibility of Kerr-lens modelocking Ti:sapphire lasers with green and blue diodes has been demonstrated [1], [2]. Here, we present our work on a self-starting modelocked Ti:sapphire pumped by a single 1W green diode and operating with a repetition rate exceeding 1 GHz.