Analytical spatio-temporal design of Kerr lens mode-locked laser resonators

An analytical method of spatio-temporal design for a Kerr lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser is presented. Various spatial and temporal effects are considered to derive simple quadratic equations of the pulse width for both standing- and traveling-wave cavities. By solving the quadratic equation, we obtain the relations between pulse width and other cavity parameters for a given system for optimal design of a Kerr lens mode-locked cavity and to generate the shortest laser pulses. Our theoretical results agree well with the experimental results, and the computation time of this analytic approach for cavity parameters is reduced drastically as compared with an iteratively numerical approach. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.