99-fs Nd:glass laser mode-locked with carbon nanotube saturable absorber mirror

Mode-locked operation of Nd:silicate glass with both single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT-SAM) and semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM) has been investigated. SWCNT-SAM mode-locking has been optimized in Nd-doped bulk lasers for the first time, yielding 99-fs pulses at 1070 nm. Using a SESAM for comparison pulses as short as 87 fs and a tuning range of 30 nm was achieved. Related to the applied 200-mW single-mode laser diode as pump source the lasers were characterized by high efficiency and low threshold. The optimized low-power pump setup yielded a remarkable slope efficiency of 46.5% in the cw regime.