Structures for additive pulse mode locking

Abstract

The theory of additive pulse mode locking (APM) is developed in closed form under a linearization approximation. The pulse parameters are determined in terms of the gain, the gain dispersion, the group-velocity dispersion, and the self-phase modulation. Stability regimes are established. Various possible configurations of laser systems that can produce APM are presented. Some of them permit single-cavity realizations that may not require interferometric length stabilization circuits. In general, the results are applicable to a wide range of fast saturable absorber mode-locked systems.