Investigation on self-starting for self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser

In this work, without adding any optical elements, the self-starting self-mode-locking (SSML) was achieved in three Ti:sapphire lasers at almost the same time as the similar works by Ming Lai (Opt. Lett., 1994, V.19, N.10, 722) and by G.Cerullo et al (ibid, 1994, V.19, .14, 1040). The stable pulses as short as 74fs in duration with average output power of 300mW and wavelengths centered at 810nm were generated. A model of self-starting Kerr-lens mode-locking Lasers was suggested to study the mechanism of SSML; the formulae and numerical results for the focal length of thermal and Kerr-lens were obtained; and the resonator for self-starting was analyzed and calculated numerically with satisfactory results as compared to the experimental ones.