Manufacture of Lasers with Multiple Operating Modes

Abstract

A two-beam pumped Ti:sapphire laser with femtosecond and picosecond cavities was manufactured. Three operating modes, independent self mode-locking, cross mode-locking and multi-pulse operating, were achieved. In the independent self mode-locking mode, femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses were generated in the two cavities, respectively. In the cross mode-locking mode, synchronized femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses were obtained in the two cavities. In the multi-pulse mode, multi-pulses were produced in the picosecond cavity. The results show that, the independent self mode-locking mode is dominated mainly by group velocity dispersion and self-phase modulation, the cross mode-locking mode is governed primarily by cross-phase modulation and the multi-pulse operating is ruled largely by self-amplitude modulation.