The Generation of Ultrashort

Laser Pulses
The importance of bandwidth

More than just a light bulb

Two, three, and four levels – rate equations

Gain and saturation

1
But first: the progress has been amazing!

10ps
Nd:glass
Nd:YLF
Nd:YAG

S-P Dye Diode

Dye
SHORTEST PULSE DURATION

1ps

CW Dye

Color The shortest

Center
pulse vs. year
100fs Cr:LiS(C)AF
CPM Dye Er:fiber (for different
Cr:YAG media)
Nd:fiber

Cr:forsterite
10fs w/Compression

Ti:sapphire

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

YEAR
2
 Continuous vs. ultrashort pulses of light

A constant and a delta-function are a Fourier-Transform pair.

Irradiance vs. time Spectrum

Continuous beam:

time frequency

Ultrashort pulse:

time frequency
3
 Long vs. short pulses of light
The uncertainty principle says that the product of the temporal
and spectral pulse widths is greater than ~1.
Irradiance vs. time Spectrum

Long pulse

time frequency

Short pulse

time frequency
4
Light bulbs, lasers,
and ultrashort pulses

But a light bulb is also broadband.

What exactly is required to make an ultrashort pulse?

Answer: A Mode-locked Laser

Okay, what’s a laser, what are modes, and what does it

mean to lock them?
We’ll get to this part next lecture. 5
There are 3 conditions for steady-state laser operation.

Amplitude condition
threshold
slope efficiency

Phase condition
axial modes
homogeneous vs. inhomogeneous gain media

Transverse modes |E(x,y)|2

Hermite Gaussians
the “donut” mode

x y
6
 Rate equations for a two-level system
Rate equations for the population densities of the
2 N2
two states:
Pump Laser
Stimulated emission Spontaneous N1
Absorption 1
emission
dN 2 If the total number
 BI ( N1  N 2 )  AN 2 of molecules is N:
dt
Pump intensity N  N1  N 2
dN1
 BI ( N 2  N1 )  AN 2 N  N1  N 2
dt
d N 2 N 2  ( N1  N 2 )  ( N1  N 2 )
  2 BI N  2 AN 2
dt  N  N
d N
  2 BI N  AN  AN
dt 7
How does the population difference
depend on pump intensity? 2 N2
Pump Laser
d N
 2 BI N  AN  AN 1 N1
dt
In steady-state: 0  2BI N  AN  AN

Solve for N: ( A  2 BI )N  AN

N
 N  AN /( A  2 BI ) 
2B
1 I
A
N where: I sat  A / B
 N 
1  2 I / I sat Isat is called the saturation intensity.
8
 Why inversion is impossible in 2 N2

a two-level system Pump Laser

N 1 N1
Population difference N 
1  2 I / I sat
population difference N

a plot of this function

Recall that N  N1  N 2
0.5 N For population inversion, we require N  0

N is always positive,
0 no matter how hard we
0 2Isat 4Isat 6Isat
pump on the system!
Pump intensity

It’s impossible to achieve a steady-state inversion in a two-level system!

Why? Because absorption and stimulated emission are equally likely.
Even for an infinite pump intensity, the 9
best we can do is N1 = N2 (i.e., N = 0)
 Rate equations for a 3
Fast decay
three-level system 2

Pump Laser
So, if we can’t make a laser using two Transition Transition
levels, what if we try it with three?
1
Assume we pump to a state 3 that
rapidly decays to level 2.

dN 2 The total number Level 3

 BIN1  AN 2 of molecules is N: decays
dt fast and
N  N1  N 2 so N3 = 0.
dN1 N  N1  N 2
  BIN1  AN 2
dt

d N
 2 BIN1  2 AN 2 2N 2  N  N
dt
2N1  N  N 10
 3
Why inversion is possible in 2
Fast decay

a three-level system
Pump Laser
Transition Transition
d N
  BIN  BI N  AN  AN 1
dt
In steady-state: 0   BIN  BI N  AN  AN

Solve for N: A  BI 1   B A I

N  N N
A  BI 1   B A I

1  I / I sat where, as before: I sat  A / B

 N  N
1  I / I sat Isat is the saturation intensity.

Now if I > Isat, N is negative! 11

Rate equations for a four- 3
Fast decay
level system 2

Pump Laser
Now assume the lower laser level 1 Transition Transition
also rapidly decays to a ground level 0.
1
dN 2 0
Fast decay
As before:  BIN 0  AN 2
dt
dN 2 The total number
 BI ( N  N 2 )  AN 2 of molecules is N :
dt
N  N0  N2
Because N1  0, N   N 2
N0  N  N2
d N
  BIN  BI N  AN
dt
At steady state: 0  BIN  BI N  AN 12
 3
Fast decay
Why inversion is easy in 2
a four-level system Pump Laser
Transition Transition

0  BIN  BI N  AN 1
Fast decay
0
Solve for N:
 B A I
 N   BIN  A  BI    N
1   B A I

I / I sat where: I sat  A / B

 N   N
1  I / I sat Isat is the saturation intensity.

Now, N is negative—for any non-zero value of I!

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 Two-, three-, and four-level systems
Four-level systems are best.

Two-level Three-level Four-level

system system system

Fast decay
Fast decay
Pump
Pump Laser Transition Laser
Transition Transition Transition
Laser
Pump
Transition
Transition
Fast decay

At best, you get

If you hit it hard,
equal populations. Lasing is easy!
you get lasing.
No lasing.
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Population inverstion in two-, three-,
and four-level systems
N

2 levels
population
difference 0
N 3 levels population
inversion

4 levels
-N
0 2Isat 4Isat 6Isat 8Isat 10Isat

intensity of the pump

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 What is the saturation intensity?
A is the excited-state relaxation rate: 1/
I sat  A / B B is the absorption cross-section, , divided by
the energy per photon, ħ: / ħ

ħ ~10-19 J for visible/near IR light

Both  and  depend
 ~10-12 to 10-8 s for molecules
on the molecule, and
I sat 
also the frequency of
the light.
 ~10-20 to 10-16 cm2 for molecules (on
resonance)
105 to 1013 W/cm2

The saturation intensity plays a key role in laser theory. It is the

intensity which corresponds to one photon incident on each molecule,
within its cross-section , per recovery time .

For Ti:sapphire, Isat ~ 300 kW/cm2

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Threshold condition: what about losses?
collection of 4-level systems

length Lm
Steady-state condition #1:
Amplitude is invariant after each round trip
Eafter  1 
 r1  r2 exp  2 gLm   1
1
g ln  
Ebefore 2 Lm  r1  r2 
gain
Gain g must be large enough to
2
compensate for reflection losses Note: R j  rj
R1 and R2 at the mirrors.
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Note: this ignores other sources of loss in the laser.
Threshold population inversion
collection of 4-level systems

length Lm
1  1  1
g ln   But we have seen that the
g 0   N   0
4 Lm  R1 R2  gain at resonance is: 2
1  1 
Threshold inversion density: N thresh  ln  
2 Lm 0  R1 R2 
Example: A 5 mm Ti:sapphire crystal, in a cavity with
N th  -2·1017cm 3
one high reflector and one 5% output coupler

This corresponds to ~0.5% of the Ti3+ ions in the crystal. 18

 A threshold value of pump intensity
1

2 levels
population
difference 0
N Nthreshold
3 levels lasing! population
inversion

4 levels
-1
0 2Isat 4Isat 6Isat 8Isat 10Isat

minimum pump intensity of the pump

intensity required
to turn on a 4-level
laser, Ithreshold 19
Gain vs. loss in a laser cavity
collection of 4-level systems

length Lm Round-trip length Lrt

2
More generally: Eafter  m  0  m  c
 R1 R2 e e
Ebefore
cavity gain net cavity loss
per round trip per round trip,
including mirrors

Cavity Q-factor: Q  2 Lrt   c  the fractional power loss

per optical cycle

Cavity lifetime:  c  Trt  c 20

 2
Eafter
Laser output power  e m  c
Ebefore
Threshold inversion condition becomes c = m
c
or N thresh 
2 Lm 0
Output power is determined by gain saturation:

4 g 0 Lm
 m  4 gLm 
I
  c   0   oc
1  circ
I sat loss (separated into the output
gain coupler plus all other losses)
 4 g 0 Lm 
I out   oc I circ  I sat  oc   1  I sat
  0   oc 
(valid only above threshold, Iout  0) 21
Slope efficiency
Recall that the unsaturated gain is proportional to the pumping rate Rp:

  21  10 
g 0  N 0     R p
  2110 
Thus, output power can also be written:

 Rp  Output power varies linearly

I out  I sat oc   1
R  with the pump rate (above
 p ,th  threshold but below saturation)

output power
“Slope efficiency” =
pump power

22
 Slope efficiency
Above threshold (but not too far above), the output laser
power is a linear function of the input pump power.

The slope of this line is called the

output laser power

“slope efficiency” of the laser.

threshold For example, a slope efficiency of 50% means

that for every two additional pump photons we
add, one additional laser photon is generated.
pump power

The concept of slope efficiency only applies for Ith < Ipump < Isat.

Essentially all lasers exhibit this behavior.

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Slope efficiency - examples

diode-pumped thulium lasers

P. Černý and H. Jelínková, SPIE 2006

slope efficiency: 0.74 W/A

threshold: 33 mA

distributed feedback diode laser saturation

A. Jechow, et al., Opt. Lett (2007) regime

 = 975 nm

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