Feature

Self-Modelocking: Ultimate Simplicity In Ultrashort Pulse Generation

W. Sibbett

For the past 25 years or so, there have been many sustained research programmes devoted to the study of the techniques by which ultrashort (≤ 10-12 s) laser pulses can be generated. Whereas spectral purity can be ensured by constraining the laser to operate on a single axial or longitudinal mode of the resonator, the production of picosecond or shorter pulses demands that many longitudinal resonator modes must be precisely locked in phase by a process that is referred to as modelocking.

Publish Date: 01 December 1991