Passive mode locking in solid-state lasers with two-component switches

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of passive mode locking in solid-state lasers with a passive switch composed of two saturable absorbers characterized by different bleaching intensities for "instantaneous" absorbers and those with a finite relaxation time. The duration of ultrashort pulses was minimized by varying the absorber bleaching intensities, the total transmission of the switch, and the relative concentration of each component of the switch. The duration of ultrashort pulses achieved experimentally was 6 ps for a YAG:Nd laser.