Mode locking of laser oscillators by injection-locking

Abstract

The possibility of mode locking of high-powered laser oscillators by injection locking to a weak mode-locked signal from a cw laser is proposed and demonstrated. The experiment was carried out using a flash-lamp–pumped pulsed dye laser injection locked to a mode-locked cw dye laser. Gains on the order of 3×104 and nearly Fourier-transform–limited mode-locked pulses were obtained.