Kerr lens mode locking without nonlinear astigmatism
Kerr lens mode locking without nonlinear astigmatism
We demonstrate a Kerr-lens mode locked folded cavity using a planar (non-Brewster) Ti:sapphire crystal as a gain and Kerr medium, thus cancelling the nonlinear astigmatism caused by a Brewster cut Kerr medium. Our method uses a novel cavity folding in which the intra-cavity laser beam propagates in two perpendicular planes …