COHERENT PULSE-PROPAGATION IN A MODE-LOCKED ARGON-LASER

An investigation has been carried out on coherent pulse propagation ef fects in a mode-locked argon-ion laser. It is shown that this laser, w hen operated in a high-Q-cavity configuration, produces pulses exhibit ing characteristics of coherent pulse propagation, including spectral power broadening and coherent ringing on the trailing edge of the puls es. A semiclassical model of the laser predicts results that are in go od agreement with our experiment. The exploitation of these coherent e ffects in improving the performance of the mode-locked argonion laser, and of mode-locked lasers in general, is also discussed.