Passive mode locking in a cw dye laser with a rapidly relaxing absorber

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of the characteristics of passive mode locking in a cw dye laser with a rapidly relaxing absorber. It was found that such a "fast" absorber was prone to fluctuations. This altered the limits and widened the mode-locking range in the direction of higher energy densities of the pulses, compared with a "slow" absorber of the DODCI type. This made it possible to generate pulses shorter than 100 fs with an average power of 30–50 mW.