Abstract

Recent experimental studies in Ti:Al₂O₃ suggest that passive modelocking may be achieved in a solid state laser using fast intracavity optical nonlinearities. Self modelocking was observed by Spence et al. in Ti:Al₂O₃ using a single laser cavity operating in multiple transverse modes^[1]. We report the demonstration of two separate types of passive modelocking in Ti:Al₂O₃ using two all solid state nonlinear intracavity modulators. Fast saturable absorber-like modelocking is achieved in the first case using a Kerr polarization modulator and in the second using a novel self focussing mirror. The advantage of these approaches is that they are modular, can be used with an arbitrary laser cavity design, preserve full tunability, and are extendable to other solid state lasers.

© 1991 Optical Society of America