Unidirectional travelling wave operation of a mode-locked Nd:glass ring laser
Abstract The development of unidirectional mode-locked pulses in a Nd:glass ring laser is studied for various combinations of active and passive mode-locking and pulse direction discrimination elements.
Actively mode-locked and Q-controlled Nd:glass laser.
A Q-controlled Nd:glass ring laser system has been developed which is actively mode-locked by means of either KD *P or LiNbO(3) electro-optic modulators and is capable of producing 1.5 mJ, 100 ps, 1.06 mum pulses synchronized to better than 400 ps to an external event. By using prelase methods or saturable absorbers shorter pulses from 37 to 15 ps duration can be generated with poorer synchronization.
Generation of ultrashort pulses in a two-component laser under induced mode-locking conditions
A method was developed for generating ultrashort pulses of duration close to the reciprocal of the width of the gain profile. This method was based on mode locking induced by active modulation of the resonator losses at the intennodal frequency. This locking occurred in a laser with a two-component (amplifyingabsorbing) medium with a homogeneously broadened line. A theoretical analysis was followed by an experimental investigation of the formation of ultrashort pulses in a traveling-wave laser of this type. The theoretical and experimental results were found to be in good qualitative agreement. The experiments demonstrated that stable ultrashort pulses of ~5×10–12 sec duration could be generated.