Device and method for generating laser pulses by Kerr lens based mode locking with a loss-modulation device as a Kerr medium

US11552442B2 · 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
• Sebastian Groebmeyer · Holzkirchen, DE
• Jonathan Brons · Oberndorf, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 23, 2019
• Grant date: Jan 10, 2023
• Expiry date: Oct 3, 2039

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S3/1643
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A laser device (100), being configured for generating laser pulses by Ken lens based mode locking, comprises a laser resonator (10) with a plurality of resonator mirrors (11.1, 11.2, 11.3) spanning a resonator beam path (12), a solid state gain medium (20) being arranged in the laser resonator (10), a Kerr medium device (30) being arranged with a distance from the gain medium (20) in the laser resonator (10), wherein the Kerr medium device (30) includes at least one Ken medium being arranged in a focal range of the resonator beam path and being configured for forming the laser pulses by the nonlinear Kerr effect, and a loss-modulation device (31, 32) having a modulator medium, which is capable of modulating a power loss of the laser pulses generated in the laser resonator (10), wherein the Kerr medium device (30) includes the modulator medium of the loss-modulation device (31, 32) as the at least one Kerr medium having an optical non-linearity being adapted for both of creating the Kerr lens based mode-locking in the laser resonator and modulating the power loss in the laser resonator. Furthermore, a method of generating laser pulses by Kerr lens based mode locking is described, wh…