Active mode locking of broad band continuous-wave lasers

Author

Darrow, Justin T. ; Jain, Ravinder K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Columbia Univ., New York, NY, USA

Volume

27

Issue

4

fYear

1991

fDate

4/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1048

Lastpage

1060

Abstract

The authors extend D.J. Kuizenga and A.E. Siegman´s theory (1970) on active mode locking to the case of broad bandwidth continuous-wave (CW) tunable lasers; in particular, the authors analyze the effects of intracavity group-velocity dispersion and bandwidth control caused by intracavity optical elements, such as the solid-state hosts of the gain medium, modulators, and birefringent tuning filters. The theory predicts that in the presence of significant group-velocity (material) dispersion there exists an optimal value of the intracavity bandwidth at which the shortest pulsewidths can be obtained. This optimal value of the intracavity bandwidth is inversely proportional to the square root of the intracavity group-velocity dispersion. The results of this theory are compared with the authors´ previous experiments on active mode locking of a CW Ti:Al₂O₃ laser

Keywords

laser mode locking; laser theory; laser tuning; sapphire; solid lasers; titanium; Al₂O₃:Ti; Ti:Al₂O₃ laser; active mode locking; bandwidth control; birefringent tuning filters; broad band continuous wave tunable lasers; gain medium; intracavity bandwidth; intracavity group-velocity dispersion; intracavity optical elements; modulators; pulsewidths; solid-state hosts; theory; Bandwidth; Cause effect analysis; Dispersion; Laser mode locking; Laser theory; Laser tuning; Optical control; Optical filters; Solid lasers; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.83340

Filename

83340