Single and multi-pulse soliton states observed in a Ti:sapphire laser mode-locked by an ion-implanted anti-resonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorber

Abstract

A commercial Ti:Sapphire laser was reconfigured from its normal Kerr Lens Mode-Locking operation to incorporate the anti-resonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorbers (A-FPSAs). It was found that both annealed and unannealed A-FPSAs produced self-starting mode-locking. Due to its fast recovery under strong saturation even the unimplanted sample mode-locked the laser stably and in self-starting manner. The laser clearly displayed better stability against Q-switched mode-locking operation when operated with high-dose implanted samples. Data indicate that this is due to the decreased modulation depth for these samples. The pulsewidth of the single soliton states varied linearly with intra-cavity dispersion and inversely with pulse energy, indicating the soliton nature of the pulses. Show more