Abstract

Since the first demonstration of the soliton laser [1], coupling of a mode locked laser to a nonlinear external cavity has been established as an excellent technique for the generation of ultrashort light pulses [2,3]. In general, the mode locking improves and shorter pulses are generated. The shortening of the laser pulses is thereby due to the nonlinear action of the external cavity [4]. The simpler case of a linear external cavity, which up to now has only been analyzed theoretically [5], is not expected to lead to the generation of shorter pulses. However, we have found experimentally that a dramatic improvement of the mode locking and the generation of clean Fourier transform limited laser pulses can also be obtained in this case.

© 1990 Optical Society of America