Larissa Krainer

Nearly quantum-noise-limited timing jitter from miniature Er:Yb:glass lasers.

We havemeasured therelative timing jitter oftwopassively mode-locked 10-GHz Er:Yb:glass lasers tobe190fs(100Hz-1.56 MHz)infree-running and26fs(6Hz-1.56 MHz) insynchronized operation. Wepresent theresults oftiming jitter measurements fortwopassively mode-locked 10-GHzEr:Yb:glass lasers (Time- Bandwidth Products ERGO PGL).Thecavities arebuilt withgreat careformechanical stability andadditionally enclosed inametal case.Thelasers produce ;15mW ofaverage output power(fiber coupled) in1.5-ps Gaussian pulses. Thetiming ofthepulses relative tothat ofanexternal reference oscillator canbestabilized withaphase-locked loop which controls thecavity length bymoving anendmirror mounted onapiezo actuator. Tomeasure therelative timing jitter ofthetwolasers, weuseanindirect phase comparison method(l) that allows precise jitter measurements forfree-running ortiming-stabilized mode-locked lasers. Thefigure shows measured two- sided timing phase noise powerspectra ofthefree-running andthetiming-stabilized lasers. Eachcurve represents the average offoursingle measurements with ameasurement timeof0.17s.Thedashed line showsthelimit given by quantum noise sources inthecavities.(2)

Nearly quantum noise limited timing jitter from miniature Er:Yb:glass lasers

We have measured the relative timing jitter of two passively mode-locked 10-GHz Er:Yb:glass lasers to be 190 fs (100 Hz-1.56 MHz) in free-running and 26 fs (6 Hz-1.56 MHz) in synchronized operation.

Novel inverse saturable absorption for improved passive mode locking

Inverse saturable absorption stronger than two-photon absorption is observed in 1.5-/spl mu/m semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) measured with pulse durations of 190 fs to 20 ps and repetition rates of 60 MHz to 10 GHz.