Passive stabilization of a synchronously mode-locked NaCl color-center laser by coherent photon seeding.

We use coherent photon seeding to passively stabilize a synchronously mode-locked NaCl color-center laser. This results in the generation of essentially transform-limited picosecond pulses with average power levels of as high as 1.3 W in the 1.5–1.7-μm range. In addition, the pulse energy fluctuations are reduced by as much as 1 order of magnitude.