Nature of the multipulse operation in Kerr-lens mode-locked Cr/sup 2+/:ZnSe laser

Summary form only given. Chromium-doped zinc-selenide is a very promising solid-state medium for tunable sub-picosecond pulse generation. In this paper we present the analysis of multipulse generation using the example of the Kerr-lens mode-locked Cr/sup 2+/:ZnSe laser and define the limits of the ultrashort pulse stability. We use a relatively simple but general model taking into account the possibility of a strong saturation of the effective fast Kerr-lens saturable absorber. Our analysis suggests general ways to avoid the multipulse generation and to obtain minimal pulse width: i) lower intracavity intensity and, as a result, the decrease of the fast absorber saturation by e.g. decreasing the P parameter, or increasing the output loss, or by selecting an active medium with shorter gain relaxation time; ii) higher loss modulation depth; iii) higher gain saturation by increasing the /spl tau/ parameter. It should be noted, that such stabilization against multipulse generation can increase the self-starting threshold or enhance the tendency to Q-switch mode-locking.