Saturable Bragg reflector self-starting passive mode locking of a Cr^4+:YAG laser pumped with a diode-pumped Nd:YVO_4 laser

Abstract
We demonstrate self-starting passive mode locking of a Cr4+:YAG laser, using an intracavity nonlinear mirror as a saturable absorber. The pump source is a diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser. Output pulses are centered at 1541 nm, with 26-nm spectral bandwidth and 110-fs pulse width. Output powers of 70 mW are obtained with 8 W of pump power. This mode locking technique is compared with Kerr-lens mode locking.