Abstract

The pump pulse of a hybridly mode-locked laser provides additional parameters for system optimization. We use a semiclassical model to explore numerically the role of the pump pulse in the ultrashort pulse production of a hybridly mode-locked dye laser. Pump pulses of lengths less than ~1 psec are found to correspond to Dirac delta functions and deliver the shortest output pulses. We conclude that existing dye-laser systems would yield a twofold to threefold shortening in output pulse widths and a threefold to fivefold increase in peak power if pump pulses of 1 psec were used. We note that a 1-psec pump pulse is attainable using fiber-compression techniques.

© 1989 Optical Society of America

Pump pulse effects in synchronously pumped mode-locked dye lasers

D. L. MacFarlane and Lee W. Casperson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6(3) 292-299 (1989)

Theory of a synchronously pumped mode-locked dye laser in the short pump pulse limit

D. L. MacFarlane and Lee W. Casperson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6(6) 1175-1181 (1989)

Generation of 36-fsec pulses near 775 nm from a colliding-pulse passively mode-locked dye laser

P. Georges, F. Salin, and A. Brun
Opt. Lett. 14(17) 940-942 (1989)

Evolution of gain and absorption in a cw mode-locked dye laser

Y. X. Wu and P.-T. Ho
Opt. Lett. 14(7) 362-363 (1989)

Generation of intense 25-fsec pulses by a pulsed laser system

G. Angel, R. Gagel, and A. Laubereau
Opt. Lett. 14(18) 1005-1007 (1989)