Abstract

Active mode-locking of cw lasers usually results in a train of Gaussian pulses with a pulse-width following the Kuizenga-Siegman theory. Recent experiments¹ with a regeneratively actively modelocked Nd:glass laser produced sechshaped transform-limited pulses as short as 310 fs. One reason for this tremendous pulse shortening observed is the application of an intracavity filter to increase the bandwidth Ω_g of the net gain profile. As we show in this paper by theory and numerical simulations, soliton formation and excessive group velocity dispersion allow for additional pulse shortening.

© 1994 IEEE