Control of laser pulse parameters in a cavity with a thermal-nonlinearity shutter

The light pulse generation by a laser controlled by shutter from a finite-thickness absorbing layer with thermal nonlinearity has been studied theoretically. The layer placed in the cavity is oriented with respect to the mirror so that conditions for nonlinear total internal reflection of generated radiation are created. In the plane-wave approximation, a self-consistent system of nonlinear truncated equations for the field amplitudes together with constitutive equations has been obtained. Numerical simulation with the use of the obtained system has shown that it is possible to control the form and duration of the generated pulse by varying the absorption coefficient of the nonlinear medium and the angle of incidence on the absorbing layer, as well as the layer thickness.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 71, No. 6, pp. 771–777, November–December, 2004.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected cover date.