Generation of extended pulse trains of minimum duration by passive negative feedback applied to solid-state Q-switched lasers

Author

Agnesi, A. ; Corno, A. Del ; Trapani, P. Di ; Fogliani, M. ; Reali, G.C. ; Diels, Jean-Claude ; Yeh, Chao-Yung ; Zhao, Xin Miao ; Kubecek, V.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron., Pavai Univ., Italy

Volume

28

Issue

3

fYear

1992

fDate

3/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

710

Lastpage

719

Abstract

Intracavity self-focusing in a thin two-photon absorber acts, in combination with pinholes, as an efficient power and energy limiter in flashlamp (pulsed) and arc lamp (CW) pumped actively passively mode-locked crystalline Nd-doped lasers. Power limiting by the intracavity two-photon absorber is exploited to create the condition for optimum pulse compression in the saturable absorber. Additional pulse shortening is due to the elimination of the pulse tail by self-defocusing in the nonlinear crystal. Extracavity and intracavity measurements, as well as three-dimensional computer simulations, give a complete understanding of the pulse evolution in the cavity, including the two mechanisms of pulse shaping and compression

Keywords

Q-switching; laser mode locking; neodymium; optical pumping; optical saturable absorption; optical self-focusing; solid lasers; actively passively mode-locked crystalline Nd-doped lasers; arc lamp pumped lasers efficient power limiter; continuous wave lasers; energy limiter; extended pulse trains; flashlamp pumped lasers; generation; intracavity self-focusing; intracavity two-photon absorber; mechanisms; nonlinear crystal; optimum pulse compression; passive negative feedback; pinholes; pulse evolution; pulse shaping; pulse tail; solid-state Q-switched lasers; stabilization mechanism; thin two-photon absorber; three-dimensional computer simulations; Crystallization; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Power lasers; Pulse generation; Pulse measurements; Pulse shaping methods; Pump lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.124996

Filename

124996