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US 6,252,892 B1Granted
Resonant fabry-perot semiconductor saturable absorbers and two photon absorption power limiters
AssigneeImra America, Inc.
InventorsMin Jiang, Donald J. Harter, Gregg D. Sucha, Martin E. Fermann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An intracavity resonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorber (R-FPSA) induces modelocking in a laser such as a fiber laser. An optical limiter such as a two photon absorber (TPA) can be used in conjunction with the R-FPSA, so that Q-switching is inhibited, resulting in laser output that is cw modelocked. By using both an R-FPSA and a TPA, the Q-switched modelocked behavior of a fiber laser is observed to evolve into cw modelocking.
Claims43
A Mode-locked laser, comprising:
- a gain medium;
- first and second reflectors disposed on opposite ends of said gain medium to form an optical cavity;
- a third reflector disposed within said cavity and spaced from said first reflector to form a Fabry-Perot etalon which is near resonance at the laser frequency;
- and
- a saturable absorber having nonlinear absorption characteristics and inducing mode-locked laser pulses, said absorber located within said Fabry-Perot etalon.
2 more elements
A mode-locked laser, comprising:
- a gain medium;
- first and second reflectors disposed on opposite ends of said gain, medium to form an optical cavity;
- and
- a resonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorber (R-FPSA) disposed within said cavity, said R-FPSA having nonlinear aborption characteristics and inducing mode-locked laser pulses.
1 more element
A mode-locked laser, comprising:
- an optical cavity including a gain medium;
- a Fabry-Perot etalon within said cavity which is near resonance at the laser frequency;
- and
- a saturable absorber having nonlinear absorption characteristics and inducing mode-locked laser pulses, said absorber located within said Fabry-Perot etalon.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.