Soliton mode-locking with saturable absorbers

Author

Kärtner, F.X. ; Jung, I.D. ; Keller, U.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Quantum Electron., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland

Volume

2

Issue

3

fYear

1996

fDate

9/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

540

Lastpage

556

Abstract

We investigate ultrashort pulse generation based on the fundamental soliton generation that is stabilized by a saturable absorber. The case of an absorber with a recovery time much longer than the pulsewidth of the generated soliton is investigated in detail. Based on soliton perturbation theory we derive equations for the soliton variables and the continuum generated in a mode-locked laser. Analytic criteria for the transition from stable to unstable soliton generation are derived. The results demonstrate the possibility of ultrashort pulse generation by a slow saturable absorber only. The theoretical results are compared with experiments. We generate pulses as short as 13 fs using only semiconductor saturable absorbers

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; laser mode locking; optical saturable absorption; optical solitons; perturbation theory; solid lasers; titanium; 13 fs; Al₂O₃:Ti; Ti:sapphire laser; analytic criteria; continuum; fundamental soliton generation; mode-locked laser; recovery time; saturable absorbers; semiconductor saturable absorbers; slow saturable absorber; soliton bandwidth; soliton mode-locking; soliton perturbation theory; stable to unstable soliton generation transition; ultrashort pulse generation; Laser mode locking; Laser modes; Laser theory; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Pulse generation; Pulse modulation; Pulse shaping methods; Semiconductor lasers; Solitons;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-260X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2944.571754

Filename

571754