0.5-GHz cw mode-locked Nd:glass laser

ABSTRACT Cw Mode-locking of a Nd:Glass Laser at 0.5 GHz repetition rate has been achieved.The average power is 20 mW and the pulse width is 9.2 ps. 1. INTRODUCTION In optical signal processing, optical inter-connect ,ultra-fastoptoelectronic switching and optical computing, there is a need for an ultra high-repetition rate, short pulse mode- locked laser source. Several groups have achieved mode-locking of Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF lasers at one-half to one GHz repetition rates.[1_31 Pulses of 6.2 ps at 1 GHz repetitionrate have been obtained from a Nd:YLF laser.3Nd:glass has a much wider bandwidth, about 20 times wider than that of Nd:YLF or Nd:YAG. It potentially can produce subpicosecond pulses. We had obtained pulses of less than 10 Ps at a repetition rate of 100 MHz.4'In this work, we have investigated mode-locking of a Nd:phosphate glass laser at0.5 GHz repetition rate using a high frequency gallium-phosphate (GaP) acousto-opticmodulator (AOM) made by Brimrose Corporation. Our study consists of two parts: (1)