0.4 mJ quasi-continuously pumped picosecond Nd:GdVO4 laser with selectable pulse duration

A quasi‐continuously pumped picosecond oscillatoramplifier Nd:GdVO4 laser system based on two identical slabs in a single bounce geometry is reported. Pulse duration is from 160 to 55 ps resulting from the pulse shortening along the extended mode locked train from passively mode locked oscillator, which was measured directly from a single laser shot. The shortest 55 ps long cavity dumped single pulses from the oscillator with the energy of 15 ± 1 μ J and the contrast better than 10–3 were amplified to the energy of 150 μ J with the contrast better than 10–3 after the single‐pass amplification and to the energy of 400 μ J after the double‐pass amplification. (© 2010 by Astro Ltd., Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA)