Cornell Research Foundation Inc.

Other

Wayne S Pelouch

Chung L Tang

Peter E Powers

Lap K Cheng

A self-mode-locked ring cavity laser incorporating a laser crystal such as Ti:Sapphire includes an external cavity for producing self-starting of mode-locked operation. The external cavity receives a portion of one of the continuous wave beams from the ring cavity modulates it, and retroreflects it back to the ring cavity to initiate mode-locked unidirectional operation. The unidirectional mode-locked operation is in a direction which decouples the external cavity.

Self-starting mode-locked ring cavity laser

A broadly tunable femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on KTiOPO.sub.4 is externally pumped by a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. The laser is capable of continuous tuning from 1.2 micrometers to 1.37 micrometers in the signal branch and 1.8 to 2.15 micrometers in the idler branch, when using one set of OPO optics. Other optics expand the tuning range of the OPO from 1.0 micrometers to 2.75 micrometers, for example, by using three sets of mirrors and two different crystals. Without prisms in the OPO cavity, 215 mW of chirped pulses is generated in the signal branch, while 235 mW is generated in the idler branch. The total conversion efficiency, as measured by pump depletion, is 50%. With prisms in the cavity, nearly transform-limited pulses of 135 femtoseconds are generated, which can be shortened to 75 fs by increasing the output coupling.

Ti:sapphire-pumped high repetition rate femtosecond optical parametric

A continuous wave tunable femtosecond optical parametric oscillator includes an oscillator cavity including a pumping cavity. A nonlinear KTiOAsO.sub.4 crystal (KTA) is located in the pumping cavity and is pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser to produce output pulses having widths as short as 85 femtoseconds at wavelengths in the range 1.0 .mu.m to 5.0 .mu.m.

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Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Wayne S Pelouch