Soliton mode-locking for ultrashort pulse generation with slow saturable absorbers

Summary form only given. It is well known that mode-locked lasers will yield pulses that are both shorter and more stable if solitonlike pulse shaping is used, i.e., self-phase modulation (SFM) and negative group velocity dispersion (GVD) are properly adjusted. We extend these results and found a new mode-locking technique. Based on soliton perturbation theory we show that in a passively mode-locked femtosecond solid-state laser with solitonlike pulse shaping the mode locking process can by stabilised by only a slow saturable absorber.