
Evolution of the Pulse Energy 309
Case of a Laser with a Long Lifetime Gain Medium
In most solid-state crystalline lasers, such as Ti:sapphire, Li:CAF, Nd:YAG,
or Nd:vanadate, the energy relaxation time of the upper lasing level is orders of
magnitude larger than the cavity round-trip time. The loss modulation is small
[a(W
0
−W)
2
1], with a turnover point for the nonlinear loss curve much higher
than the gain saturation W
0
W
es
. In most solid-state laser crystals used for
fs pulse generation, the gain lifetime being in the microsecond range, the two
Eqs. (5.41) and (5.43) operate on totally different time constants. Once the gain
G
e
has been switched ...