Abstract

The recent demonstration of self-modelocking in broadband solid state gain media [1] has caused an resurgence of interest in studies of bulk self-focusing interactions. In particular, two-color nonlinear interactions have been the subject of much interest in soliton communications [2], and operation of the Ti:Sapphire laser some soliton-like features [3]. Recently, the Ti:Sapphire laser has been modelocked at two wavelengths simultaneously using a single laser rod [4-6]. These lasers produce two independently tunable trains of pulses of <100 fs duration. Under certain conditions these pulse trains will precisely synchronize themselves, exhibiting a jitter of < 50 fs. In the present paper we discuss measurements of the frequency-pulling characteristics of a 2-color self-modelocked Ti.Sapphire laser based on the design of Dykaar [6]. These measurements demonstrate the strong nonlinearity of the cross-modelocking process, and may provide insight into two-wavelength soliton interactions.

© 1994 Optical Society of America