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US 8,036,253 B2Granted
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
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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.
Claims15
A mode locked fiber laser comprising:
- an optical cavity comprising an optical limiter (OL) and a resonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorber (R-FPSA), wherein each of the OL and the R-FPSA comprise non-linear absorption characteristics;
- and
- a gain medium comprising a doped optical fiber, the gain medium disposed within the optical cavity;
- wherein the mode locked fiber laser is configured to operate in a regime wherein the combined total loss of the R-FPSA and the OL as a function of intensity is near a local minimum, such that the R-FPSA and the OL, in combination, evolve cw modelocking from Q-switched modelocking.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.