High-repetition-rate electro-optic cavity dumping

Abstract

A method for obtaining very high electro-optic switching rates is demonstrated and employed for cavity dumping of a synchronously pumped mode-locked dye laser. The intracavity light switch consists of a Pockels cell and a thin-film polarizer. A synchronous, field-effect transistor-switch based generator delivers, at 10 MHz repetition rate, 15-ns pulses with an amplitude of 300 V required for operating the Pockels cell. High electrical efficiency is obtained by connecting the Pockels cell via a resonant line. Dispersion of the high-voltage pulse shuttling on the line is minimized by using phase compensation networks at its ends. From the optical pulse circulating in the laser cavity at 80 MHz, an adjustable fraction is dumped out on every eighth round trip. Intermediate pulses are suppressed by about 1:100.

Diode-pumped femtosecond laser oscillator with cavity dumping

“…By applying a voltage to the BBO crystal it gets birefringent. Consequently the polarization of the laser beam gets elliptical and a significant amount of the pulse energy is dumped out of the cavity at the thin film polarizer (TFP) [16,17]. The dumper was controlled by a trigger generator (TG) and a high voltage switch with a maximum output up to 3.6kV at 206 kHz.…”