Repetition rate tunable ultra-short optical pulse generation based on electrical pattern generator

An actively mode-locked laser with tunable repetition rate is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on a programmable electrical pattern generator.By changing the repetition rate of the electrical patterns applied on the in-cavity modulator, the repetition rate of the output optical pulse sequences changes accordingly while the pulse width of the optical pulse train remains almost constant.In other words, the output ultra-short pulse train has a tunable duty cycle.In a proof-of-principle experiment, optical pulses with repetition rates of 10, 5, 2.5 and 1.25 GHz are obtained by adjusting the electrical pattern applied on the in-cavity modulator while their pulse widths remain almost unchanged.