Page i, Front Matter

Table of Contents

• Front Matter

• Introduction to Optical Pulses
• Introduction to Optical Pulses

• Optical Pulses in the Time Domain

• Optical Pulses in the Frequency Domain

• Bandwidth-Limited Pulses

• Pulse Trains and Frequency Combs

• Carrier-Envelope Offset

• Overview of Laser Sources for Optical Pulses

• Q Switching
• Q Switching

• Active and Passive Q Switching

• Essentials of Laser Dynamics

• Pumping the Gain Medium

• Dynamics of Active Q Switching

• Achievable Pulse Energy

• Pulse Duration and Buildup Time

• Influence of Pulse Repetition Rate

• Dynamics of Passive Q Switching

• Pulse Duration and Pulse Energy

• Saturable Absorbers for Q Switching

• Influence of Pump Fluctuations

• Mode Beating in Multimode Lasers

• Q-Switched Solid-State Bulk Lasers

• Q-Switched Microchip Lasers

• Q-Switched Fiber Lasers

• Multiple Pulsing and Instabilities

• Cavity Dumping

• Gain Switching
• Gain Switching

• Comparison with Other Techniques

• Mode Locking
• Mode Locking

• Active Mode Locking

• Passive Mode Locking

• Mode Locking with Fast Saturable Absorbers

• Mode Locking with Slow Saturable Absorbers

• Chromatic Dispersion

• Dispersive Pulse Broadening

• Effect of Dispersion in Mode-Locked Lasers

• Dispersion Compensation

• The Kerr Nonlinearity

• Self-Phase Modulation

• Self-Phase Modulation and Chromatic Dispersion

• Optical Solitons

• Quasi-Soliton Pulses in Laser Resonators

• Semiconductor Saturable Absorbers

• Other Saturable Absorbers for Mode Locking

• Initiation of Mode Locking

• Q-Switching Instabilities

• Actively Mode-Locked Solid-State Bulk Lasers

• Harmonic Mode Locking

• Passively Mode-Locked Solid-State Bulk Lasers

• Performance Figures of Mode-Locked Bulk Lasers

• Choice of Solid-State Gain Media

• Additive-Pulse Mode Locking

• Kerr Lens Mode Locking

• Generation of Few-Cycle Pulses

• Mode-Locked High-Power Thin-Disk Lasers

• Miniature Lasers with High Repetition Rates

• Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers

• Soliton Fiber Lasers

• Limitations of Soliton Fiber Lasers

• Stretched-Pulse Fiber Lasers

• Similariton Fiber Lasers

• Mode-Locked Diode Lasers

• Mode-Locked VECSELs

• Mode-Locked Dye Lasers

• Instabilities of Mode-Locked Lasers

• Cavity Dumping

• Amplification of Ultrashort Pulses
• Amplification of Ultrashort Pulses

• Multipass Solid-State Bulk Amplifiers

• Regenerative Amplifiers

• Fiber Amplifiers

• Chirped-Pulse Amplification

• Optical Parametric Amplifiers

• Pulse Characterization
• Pulse Characterization

• Measurement of Pulse Energy and Peak Power

• Autocorrelators

• Pulse Characterization with FROG

• Pulse Characterization with SPIDER

• Measurement of Carrier-Envelope Offset

• Timing Jitter of Mode-Locked Lasers

• Measurement of Timing Jitter

• Equation Summary

• Back Matter