Title :
Active mode locking of a hybrid neodymium laser
Author :
Li Yen ; Guo, Bo
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Electr. Eng., Maryland Univ., Baltimore, MD, USA
Abstract :
To fully utilize the broad linewidth of Nd:glass and overcome its problems in mode locking, we used two laser media, i.e. Nd:LiYF/sub 4/ and Nd:glass, in a single cavity to form a hybrid Nd laser for mode locking. Yan et al. in Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 67, p. 3679, 1995, demonstrated continuous wave (cw) operation of the hybrid Nd laser and showed that it can lase with a spectrum characteristic of Nd:YLF, while most of the gain is from Nd:glass. This indicates that the complementary and good properties of Nd:glass and Nd:YLF can be utilized in the hybrid Nd laser for ultrashort pulse generation. In this paper we report the first demonstration of active mode locking of the hybrid Nd laser.
Keywords :
high-speed optical techniques; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser mode locking; neodymium; solid lasers; spectral line broadening; LiYF/sub 4/:Nd; Nd:LiYF/sub 4/; Nd:glass; active laser mode locking; broad linewidth; hybrid neodymium laser; laser media; single cavity; spectrum characteristic; ultrashort pulse generation; Bandwidth; Coherence; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Laser theory; Laser tuning; Neodymium; Optical pulse generation; Pump lasers; Space vector pulse width modulation;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Annual Meeting, 1996. LEOS 96., IEEE
Conference_Location :
Boston, MA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3160-5
DOI :
10.1109/LEOS.1996.565120
