Pulse laser apparatus and method for Kerr lens mode locking based creation of laser pulses

US10855049B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Föderung der Wissenschaften e.V. · US
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen · DE

Inventors

• Oleg Pronin · Garching bei München, DE
• Ferenc Krausz · Garching an der Alz, DE
• Jonathan Brons · Oberndorf, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 23, 2017
• Grant date: Dec 1, 2020
• Expiry date: Feb 23, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S2301/085
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A pulse laser apparatus (100) for creating laser pulses (1), in particular soliton laser pulses (1), based on Kerr lens mode locking of a circulating light field in an oscillator cavity (10), comprises at least two resonator mirrors (11, 12, . . . ) spanning a resonator beam path (2) of the oscillator cavity (10), at least one Kerr-medium (21, 22, 23) for introducing self-phase modulation and self-focusing to the circulating light field in the oscillator cavity (10), at least one gain-medium (31) for amplifying the circulating light field in the oscillator cavity (10), and a tuning device (40) for setting a first mode-locking condition and a second mode-locking condition of the oscillator cavity (10) such that an intra-cavity threshold-power for mode-locking at the first mode-locking condition is lower than that at the second mode-locking condition, wherein the first mode-locking condition is adapted for starting or shutting-down of the Kerr lens mode locking and the second mode-locking condition is adapted for continuous Kerr lens mode locking and a resonator-internal peak-power of the circulating light field is higher at the second mode-locking condition than at the first mode-lo…