Mechanism for self-synchronization of femtosecond pulses in a two-color Ti:sapphire laser

An experimental and theoretical analysis of the nonlinear coupling mechanism between the two solitary pulses circulating in a two-color femtosecond laser is presented. Two operation regimes-synchronized and nonsynchronized--and a hysteresis of the transition between the two regimes are clearly observed, while independent modelocking and tunability of the output pulse trains is found in both regimes. Pulses in the range from 15 to 100 fs are synchronized with a timing jitter below 2 fs. The combined effects of cross-phase modulation and negative group velocity dispersion are shown to be responsible for the strong pulse correlation in the synchronized regime. Our experimental observations are in agreement with numerical simulations, thus confirming the theoretical model.