Controlling number of lasing modes for designing short-cavity self-mode-locked Nd-doped vanadate lasers

Abstract

A short-cavity Nd:YVO(4) laser is employed to confirm that a spontaneous mode locking (SML) typically occurs without employing an extra nonlinearity. We further experimentally demonstrate that reducing the number of longitudinal lasing modes can diminish the phase fluctuation and effectively improve the SML pulse stability. Considering the spatial hole-burning (SHB) effect, an analytical expression is derived to accurately estimate the number of longitudinal lasing modes for a practical design guideline.