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Effect of self-phase modulation on the evolution of picosecond pulses in a Nd:glass laser

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Abstract

Many authors have reported disparate characteristics of pulses from Nd:glass mode-locked lasers. From these it has become clear that the well-developed pulse has a frequency sweep or subpicosecond structure and yields a contrast ratio less than the ideal 3 in the two-photon-fluorescence measurement. On the other hand, the early pulse is well behaved, has simple temporal and spectral structure, and yields a contrast ratio of 3 in TPF. The measurements are almost all indirect. Theories explaining the early pulse have appeared, but these fail for the fully developed pulse.

The authors present time-resolved spectrograms, covering pulse development from 1/50 peak intensity, where the pulse is well mode-locked, to full development, where spectral structure is complex. A numerical analysis, including self-phase modulation, non-linear absorption, amplification and dispersion, yields results that qualitatively agree very well with the experimental records, suggesting that self-phase modulation plays an important role in the evolution of mode-locked pulses in a Nd:glass laser.

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Author notes

  1. Chi H. Lee

    Present address: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, Md., USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Optical Sciences Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 20375, Washington, DC, USA

    Robert C. Eckardt, Chi H. Lee & James N. Bradford

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  1. Robert C. Eckardt
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  2. Chi H. Lee
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  3. James N. Bradford
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Eckardt, R.C., Lee, C.H. & Bradford, J.N. Effect of self-phase modulation on the evolution of picosecond pulses in a Nd:glass laser. Opto-electronics 6, 67–85 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01421990

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01421990

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