Abstract

The generalized form of a nonlinear equation modeling the evolution of femtosecond pulses in a wide range of laser media is derived. Together with auxiliary equations, it describes both amplitude and phase changes owing to a variety of linear and nonlinear effects. These effects include gain saturation, more than one kind of self-phase modulation, and both gain and phase dispersions. The model is applied to previous experiments of ultrashort-pulse amplification in a dye-laser amplifier and is found to describe quantitatively the observed strong spectral changes. We show that the spectral changes are due both to gain dispersion and to the interplay of various dispersive and nonlinear effects.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

Multilevel Maxwell–Bloch-equation description of ultrashort laser pulse amplification in inhomogeneously broadened XeCl media

Fumihiko Kannari and Minoru Obara
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 7(8) 1493-1507 (1990)

Phase dynamics in nanosecond pulsed dye laser amplification

N. Melikechi, S. Gangopadhyay, and E. E. Eyler
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(12) 2402-2411 (1994)

Colliding-pulse phase modulation and chirping of ultrashort optical pulses in thin slabs of nonresonant and of saturable media

Kevin L. Schehrer and Edward S. Fry
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Spectral determination of the amplitude and the phase of intense ultrashort optical pulses

E. T. J. Nibbering, M. A. Franco, B. S. Prade, G. Grillon, J.-P. Chambaret, and A. Mysyrowicz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13(2) 317-329 (1996)

Simulation of femtosecond pulse traveling-wave amplification

G. Werner, W. Rudolph, P. Heist, and P. Dorn
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9(9) 1571-1578 (1992)