MULTIMODE INJECTION LOCKING BUILDUP AND DEPHASING IN PASSIVELY MODE-LOCKED FIBER LASERS

The recently introduced harmonic injection locking is a method for gen erating pulse trains at high repetition rates from passively mode lock ed laser;. The buildup and dephasing mechanism which are instrumental for the fundamental understanding of the multimode locking process as well as its possible applications, were explored experimentally and by a novel model simulation which was adapted to include the pulsed inje ction locking. The measured locked pulse buildup time was similar to 1 .5 mu s, which corresponds to several tens of cavity roundtrips. When the injection was interrupted, the laser continued to emit synchronize d pulses, indicating a persistence of the injection induced phase rela tionship of the cavity modes.