Bound soliton formation in a SESAM mode-locked Cr:ZnSe laser with birefringent plates

Abstract

We report on experimental observation of four phase-locked bound soliton formation in a SESAM mode-locked $$\hbox {Cr}^{2+}$$ :ZnSe laser with an output power of 20 mW, a temporal pulse-to-pulse separation of 18.2 ps and single pulse duration of 1.4 ps. We demonstrate that birefringence can be used as an efficient mechanism to achieve bound state generation in solid-state lasers as an alternative method to Kerr-lens and SESAM saturation by a pump power increase or a total net cavity dispersion variation. In this work, we consider two different setup configurations to demonstrate the birefringence influence on bound soliton formation. The suggested technique could be effectively used in the realization of mode-locked lasers based on solid-state active media operating in bound-state or multi-bound regimes.