Controlling a laser output through an active saturable absorber

Abstract

Using the modified Statz - De Mars equations to describe a two laser optical system, it is shown how a saturable absorber can be made into an active control device when an external Electro Optic Modulator modulated low-intensity laser pumps directly into a saturable absorber inside a dye laser cavity. The direct modulation enables to control when and how the pulse train coming from the saturable absorber is released. The results here presented show that the pulse characteristics such as width, intensity and pulse frequency coming from the dye laser cavity, depend on the absorber characteristics and the modulation frequency.