Patent ID: 7889768
Filing Date: 2011-02-15
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
1. A mode-locked solid-state laser apparatus, comprising: an output mirror that forms a first end of a resonator; a saturable absorption mirror that forms a second end of the resonator; a solid-state laser medium disposed at a position inside of the resonator where the distance from the saturable absorption mirror is not greater than twice a Rayleigh length; an excitation optical system that inputs excitation light from outside into the resonator; a negative group velocity dispersion element, disposed inside of the resonator, that causes group velocity dispersion of the entire resonator to be not greater than 0 when light makes one round trip in the resonator; a dichroic mirror, disposed inside of the resonator, that reflects the excitation light inputted from outside into the resonator by the excitation optical system toward the solid-state laser medium and transmits oscillation light; wherein the negative group velocity dispersion element is either one of a prism pair, a diffraction grating pair, and a negative dispersion mirror pair or a combination of two or more of them; and the negative group velocity dispersion element is physically separated from the output mirror of the resonator, the absolute value |D| of a total intracavity linear dispersion amount D when light having a predetermined wavelength makes one round trip in the resonator, which is represented by the following relational expression, is set within a range of minimum value 0 to maximum value which is calculated from pulse bandwidth Δλ (where c is the velocity of light, λ