Eur. Phys. J. D 48, 19-26 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2008-00012-8

Diode-pumped Yb:KYW femtosecond laser frequency comb with stabilized carrier-envelope offset frequency

¹ Department of Physics, University of Colorado, 2000 Colorado Ave., Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
² National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway MS 847, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA
³ The Center for Microintegrated Optics for Advanced Bioimaging and Control, Colorado School of Mines, 1532 Illinois St., Golden, CO, 80401, USA

Corresponding author: ^a sdiddams@boulder.nist.gov

Received: 13 September 2007
Revised: 20 November 2007
Published online: 23 January 2008

Abstract

We describe the detection and stabilization of the carrier envelope offset (CEO) frequency of a diode-pumped Yb:KYW (ytterbium-doped potassium yttrium tungstate) femtosecond oscillator that is spectrally centered at 1033 nm. The system consists of a diode-pumped, passively mode-locked femtosecond laser that produces 290 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 160 MHz. These pulses are first amplified, spectrally broadened and temporally compressed to 80 fs, and then launched into microstructured fiber to produce an octave-spanning spectrum. An f-2f nonlinear interferometer is employed with the broadened spectrum to detect and stabilize the CEO frequency through feedback to the pump laser current. These results demonstrate that such a Yb-doped tungstate laser can provide an efficient, compact, high-repetition-rate optical frequency comb with coverage from 650–1450 nm.