Resonant passive mode-locked Nd:YLF laser

The authors review the theory of resonant passive mode locking (RPM) lasers and present experimental results for an improved Nd:YLF RPM laser that produced stable pulses as short as 3.7 ps at a repetition rate of 250 MHz. The average output power was 550 mW with 1.3-W average pump power from a Ti:sapphire laser. It was possible to couple 85% out of the nonlinear coupled cavity and still maintain stable mode locking. In RPM and amplitude nonlinearity such as absorption bleaching in a semiconductor reflector introduces an intensity-dependent reflectivity which strongly mode locks the laser. The reduced carrier lifetime in a low-temperature MBE-grown (LT) InGaAs-GaAs quantum-well reflector produces a sufficiently fast saturable absorber in the coupled cavity.<
>