Active mode locking of the far-infrared p-Ge laser has been achieved in the
Faraday configuration of electric and magnetic fields applied to the laser
crystal. The laser generates 200 ps pulses of 80-110 cm(-1) radiation with
a laser-cavity roundtrip frequency of 454 MHz. The mechanism of gain modul
ation by the external rf electric field is based on induced electric-field
gradients inside the active crystal and requires less rf power than was fou
nd previously for Voigt geometry. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [
S0003-6951(99)01045-1].