Abstract
Mode-locking of many laser systems can be achieved by interferometric techniques.1–3 When a pulse chirped after traveling through a material with a nonlinear index of refraction is interferometrycally recombined with an unchirped pulse, an effective temporal modulation is produced on the time scale of the pulse, in this paper, we describe interferometric schemes suitable for the mode-locking of diode lasers. One of the configurations, shown in Fig, 1, consists of an optical cavity where a Michelson interferometer is used as a cavity mirror and a semiconductor-laser amplifier is inserted in one arm of the interferometer. The amplifier provides both the gain to sustain the laser action and the nonlinearity needed for pulse chirping. Other schemes based on Fabry-Pérot, Fox-Smith, and Sagnac interferometers can be operated on the same principle.
© 1992 Optical Society of America
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