Optical pulse generator utilizing a YAG:Nd laser

An investigation was made of mode locking in a YAG:Nd laser by acoustooptic loss modulation in the resonator. The phase stability and duration of the optical pulses were investigated experimentally and calculated. The experimental results were in good agreement with the calculations when allowance was made for the mode selection by the plane-parallel ends of the laser crystal. The results demonstrated the feasibility of a YAG:Nd optical pulse generator without additional automatic control systems.