Stabilization of femtosecond mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser for high-accuracy pulse interferometry

We propose a method of long-term stabilization of the repetition rate and the spectral envelope in a femtosecond mode-locked (fs-ML) laser pulse by a simple control method without modifying the laser cavity configuration. The effectiveness of the repetition-rate-stabilized fs-ML laser was evaluated in a long-optical-path (LOP) pulse interferometer with a short reference arm. The resulting accuracy in the LOP pulse interferometer was improved to one-seventh that of a free-running fs-ML laser. Moreover, the stabilization of the spectral envelope was estimated to suppress the fluctuation in the phase and group indices of an object under testing by 1/50, which can increase the measurement accuracy in pulse interferometry. The simple and practical stabilization method provides a means to increase the application of pulse interferometry using the fs-ML laser.