Dynamics of Active Mode Locking in Broad-Band Continuous Wave Lasers

Theoretical analysis for the dynamics of mode locking in an AM mode-locked broad-band tunable solid-state laser is presented. The analysis is appiied to study the pulse evolution inside the AM mode-locked Ti:$AI_20_3$ laser. It is shown that the pulsewidth reaches a steady-state value after about 77 500 round-trips inside the laser cavity which corre- sponds to 258 $_\mu$s. An expression for the threshold condition for the mode-locking process is presented. The analysis yields the design parameters required for building an AM mode-locked laser