Abstract
We used power-spectrum techniques to measure both amplitude noise and timing jitter of two femtosecond color-center lasers in the near infrared: a passively mode-locked laser and an additive-pulse mode-locked laser. The cw pumped passively mode-locked color-center laser showed better noise performance than the feedback-controlled, much more complex additive-pulse mode-locked color-center laser. For both laser systems, we observed unexpected drastic increases of amplitude noise under certain operation conditions. In the low-noise operation regime, the amplitude noise of the passively mode-locked color-center laser is entirely dominated by its pump laser, whereas the additive-pulse mode-locked laser exhibits >10 dB of excess noise up to 200 kHz and tended to break up in the subhertz regime. The timing jitter for both lasers was approximately 9 psec rms for jitter rates above 130 Hz.
© 1990 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
C. L. Cesar, M. N. Islam, C. E. Soccolich, R. D. Feldman, R. F. Austin, and K. R. German
Opt. Lett. 15(20) 1147-1149 (1990)
Martin C. Nuss, Ursula Keller, George T. Harvey, Michael S. Heutmaker, and Peter R. Smith
Opt. Lett. 15(18) 1026-1028 (1990)
G. T. Kennedy, R. S. Grant, W. E. Sleat, and W. Sibbett
Opt. Lett. 18(3) 208-210 (1993)