Methods for engineering sub-two-cycle mode-locked lasers

We begin by presenting a method to efficiently solve for the steady-state solution of a nonlinear cavity, suitable for simulating a solid-state femtosecond laser. The algorithm directly solves the periodic boundary value problem by using a preconditioned Krylov-Newton shooting solver. The method can be applied to the design and study of mode-locked lasers, as well as the modeling of field enhancement cavities, such as those used in high harmonic generation. In contrast to the standard approach of dynamic simulation, which converges linearly, our algorithm converges quadratically to the stable solution, typically converging two to three orders of magnitude faster than the standard approach. The second major theme is the control of dispersion in mode-locked lasers. The predominant way to design dispersion compensating optics in the past has been a consideration of the integrated net group delay dispersion (GDD). We propose and implement an alternative spectral quantity based on the energy contained in phase distortions, which we term the Phase Distortion Ratio (PDR). Dispersion compensating mirrors optimized with respect to PDR generally perform significantly better than those where GDD is optimized. We demonstrate this in the design of a dispersion compensating mirror pair capable of compressing single-single pulses. In the final section, we deal with the unique challenges inherent to measuring sub-two-cycle pulses reliably and accurately. We have recently developed a technique, Two-Dimensional spectral Shearing Interferometry (2DSI), based on spectral shearing, which requires no calibration and does not disperse the pulse being measured.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Birge, Jonathan R. (Jonathan Richards)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franz X. Kärtner.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/53192

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/53192