Optically Pumped Saturable Bragg Reflectors: Nonlinear Spectroscopy and Application in Ultrafast Lasers

Author

Savitski, Vasili G. ; Kemp, Alan J. ; Calvez, Stephane ; Burns, David

Author_Institution

Inst. of Photonics, Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

Volume

46

Issue

11

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1650

Lastpage

1655

Abstract

A detailed study of the changes in the nonlinear optical response of a saturable Bragg reflector (SBR) in the presence of continuous-wave (CW) optical pumping was performed. A model of the heating dynamics within the device under such nonresonant external optical pumping was also configured. In this way, it was shown that fast optically induced heating could be used to externally control the behavior of the SBR. This external optical pumping of the SBR is shown to be an effective method for rapid (~75 μs) switching between CW and femtosecond pulse operation of a passively mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser.

Keywords

Bragg gratings; laser mode locking; optical elements; optical pumping; sapphire; solid lasers; titanium; Al₂O₃:Ti; continuous-wave optical pumping; heating dynamics; nonlinear optical response; nonlinear spectroscopy; nonresonant external optical pumping; optically induced heating; optically pumped saturable Bragg reflectors; passively mode-locked laser; time 75 mus; ultrafast lasers; Absorption; Nonlinear optics; Optical pumping; Optical switches; Pump lasers; Ultrafast optics; Laser absorbers; mode-locked lasers; nonlinear optics; spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2010.2057242

Filename

5565337