High repetition rate, picosecond laser sources are key elements for WDM/OTDM transmission, switching and photonic network systems. Active mode-locking is one of the main techniques for the generation of transform limited, high repetition rate, short pulse trains. It is particularly appropriate for applications that require precise timing synchronization between the optical and electrical signal...

We demonstrate the compact efficient multi-GHz Kerr-lens mode locking in a diode-pumped Nd:YVO(4) laser with a simple linear cavity without the need of any additional components. Experimental results reveal that the laser system can be characterized in stable single-pulse and multiple-pulse mode-locked operations. With a pump power of 2.5 W, the compact laser cavity produces average output powe...

We report on the experimental observation of a new type of polarization-locked vector soliton in a passively mode-locked fiber laser. The vector soliton is characterized by the fact that not only are the two orthogonally polarized soliton components phase-locked, but also one of the components has a double-humped intensity profile. Multiple phase-locked high-order vector solitons with identical...

The hybrid action of quantum-dot saturable absorber and Kerr-lens mode locking in a diode-pumped Yb:KGW laser was demonstrated. Using a quantum-dot saturable absorber with a 0.7% (0.5%) modulation depth, the mode-locked laser delivered 90 fs (93 fs) pulses with 3.2 W (2.9 W) of average power at the repetition rate of 77 MHz, corresponding to 462 kW (406 kW) of peak power and 41 nJ (38 nJ) of pu...

An ultralow-threshold Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:Al(2)O(3) laser achieved by use of an extended cavity design is demonstrated. Mode-locking thresholds as low as 156 mW are achieved. Pulses with durations as short as 14 fs and bandwidths of >100 nm with output powers of ~15 mW at 50-MHz repetition rates are generated by only 200 mW of pump power. Reducing the pump power requirements to a factor of...

CW injection locking of mode-locked semiconductor lasers has been experimentally demonstrated. The phases of the mode-locked frequency comb are shown to be coherent with that of the master CW laser. The pulsewidth of the mode-locked laser remains almost unchanged (<2 ps) for a broad range of injection power ( 28 to 12 dBm). Pulling of the entire modelocked frequency comb by 400 MHz has been dem...

It is shown that the interference between amplified spontaneous emission into the nonlasing supermode and the laser field of a semiconductor laser array causes spatial hole burning, which couples the dynamics of the amplified spontaneous emission with the laser field. In particular, phase locking between the amplified spontaneous emission and the lasing mode leads to the formation of a spectral...

We present an efficient diode-end-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser with a relaxed single-quantum-well saturable Bragg reflector (SBR), which average output power is more than 23 W and pulse duration 2 1 .5 ps cw modelocking is generated corresponding to 50 W pumping power. The overall optical-optical efficiency reaches 47% and to our knowledge, this is the highest conversion efficienc...

Femtosecond optical pulses have applications in optical communication, astronomical frequency combs, and laser spectroscopy. Here, a hybrid mode-locked erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser with topological insulator (TI) is proposed, for the first time to our best knowledge. The pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method is employed to fabricate the fiber-taper TI saturable absorber (TISA). By virtue of th...

We make an attempt to develop a novel approach to describing the initial stage of the active mode-locking in semiconductor laser structures based on analyzing the properties of dispersion relations in terms of stability for small initial perturbations. Nonlinear process of shaping optical pulses is interpreted as manifesting instability of diffusion type. For the purposes of experimental invest...