Coherent passive mode-locking in lasers: Qualitative analysis and numerical simulations

Abstract

In the present work we report the possibility of passive mode-locking based on the coherent interaction of light with the amplifying and absorbing media in lasers with ring and linear cavities. We consider the realistic and practically interesting case when the absorbing and amplifying media are separated in the cavity space but not homogeneously mixed in the volume of the cavity, as was considered earlier in the literature. We perform qualitative consideration of coherent passive mode-locking based on the area theorem of McCall and Hahn and its graphical representation for the first time. We show that other, not soliton scenarios of passive mode-locking exist, and that coherent mode-locking is self-starting (lasing without an injection seeding pulse is possible). We point to the fact that the spectral width of the laser generation can be significantly larger than the spectral bandwidth of the gain medium. Numerical simulations were performed using the system of Maxwell-Bloch equations in the slowly varying envelope approximation.