Past exam of the laser science and quantum information processing course of the University of Oxford / 2022 / 1 / a / ii / Solution

In mode locking, fixed relative phases between many longitudinal normal modes produce constructive interference during a short part of each optical resonator round trip. The round-trip time sets the repetition period. The available coherent gain bandwidth, the number of locked normal modes, the spectral phase, and residual group velocity dispersion determine the optical pulse duration.

For $M$ consecutive equally weighted normal modes of angular frequency spacing $\Delta \omega$, their wave amplitude sum is proportional toIts central peak has width of order $1/(M\Delta \omega )$, while its repetition period is $2\pi /\Delta \omega$. A transform-limited pulse therefore becomes shorter as more coherent gain bandwidth is used. This mechanism can give picosecond or femtosecond optical pulses: it does not require depletion of the whole stored population inversion during each peak, as Q-switching does. Mode locking generally accesses a much shorter time-bandwidth product scale than the gain-discharge time of Q-switching.