DocumentCode :
2945202
Title :
Ultrafast solid-state lasers
Author :
Keller, Ulrich
Author_Institution :
Ultrafast Laser Phys., Swiss Fed. Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland
fYear :
2000
fDate :
10-15 Sept. 2000
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Today´s ultrafast all-solid-state lasers continue to demonstrate unsurpassed performances in terms of pulse duration, pulse repetition rates, average power and wavelength range. Optical pulses in the 5-femtosecond range are produced by a variety of methods. Although different in technical detail, each method relies on the same three key components: spectral broadening due to the nonlinear optical Kerr effect, dispersion control, and ultrabroadband amplification. The shortest pulses generated to date all rely on chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation. A major limitation in chirped mirror design arises due to interference between light reflected at different penetration depths inside the minor structure. This results in residual oscillations in the group delay dispersion (GDD) which ultimately limits pulse shortening Unfortunately, there is always a trade-off-between GDD-oscillations and reflection bandwidth. The double-chirped mirror technique (DCM) reduced GDD oscillations and resulted in the sub-6-fs pulses. Novel DCM designs result in a sufficiently large reflection bandwidth that could, in principle, support 4-fs pulses. The technique of Kerr lens mode-locking, successful with Ti:sapphire, has not performed so well in directly diode-pumped lasers. Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) were a breakthrough resulting in the first demonstration of self-starting and stable passive mode locking of diode-pumped solid-state lasers with an intracavity saturable absorber. The design freedom of SESAMs has allowed us systematically to investigate the stability regime of passive cw mode-locking with an improved understanding and modeling of Q-switching instabilities. Simple design guidelines allowed us to push the frontiers of ultrafast solid-state lasers.
Keywords :
Q-switching; laser mirrors; laser mode locking; laser stability; optical Kerr effect; optical pulse compression; optical pulse generation; optical saturable absorption; solid lasers; spectral line broadening; Kerr lens mode-locking; Q-switching instabilities; Ti:sapphire laser; average power; chirped mirrors; directly diode-pumped lasers; dispersion compensation; dispersion control; group delay dispersion; intracavity saturable absorber; large reflection bandwidth; nonlinear optical Kerr effect; pulse duration; pulse repetition rates; residual oscillation; semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors; spectral broadening; stability regime; stable passive mode locking; ultrabroadband amplification; ultrafast solid-state lasers; wavelength range; Bandwidth; Chirp; Laser mode locking; Mirrors; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Optical reflection; Pulse amplifiers; Semiconductor diodes; Solid lasers;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe, 2000. Conference Digest. 2000 Conference on
Conference_Location :
Nice
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6319-1
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/CLEOE.2000.909668
Filename :
909668
Link To Document :
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