A new approach to achieving stable, high-repetition-rate laser pulses
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

High-repetition-rate pulsed lasers serve a wide range of applications, from optical communications to microwave photonics and beyond. Generating trains of ultrashort optical pulses commonly involves locking phases of longitudinal laser cavity modes. In 1997, a mechanism based on dissipative four-wave-mixing (DFWM) was demonstrated with key components comprising comb filters and high-nonlinearity elements. Since then, demonstrations of high-repetition-rate pulse trains adopting DFWM have exploited various types of comb filters and nonlinear components.