Laser diode end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ regenerative amplifier for picosecond pulses

A diode dual-end-pumped Nd:YVO₄ regenerative amplifier was reported. The influence of the cavity stability on the performance of the regenerative amplifier was studied. The experimental results matched well with the analysis at high pump power. The mode locking seed pulses with 15 ps pulse width and 10 nJ single pulse energy at 86 MHz were amplified up to 4.7 mJ at 1 kHz, corresponding to the maximum amplification about 0.5×10⁶, by our regenerative amplifier. And an average power of 4.7 W was obtained at the repetition rate from 1 kHz to 10 kHz.