| abstract |
A laser device (100), being configured for generating laser pulses by Kerr lens based mode locking, comprises a laser resonator (10) with a plurality of resonator mirrors (11.1, 11.2, 11.3) spanning a resonator beam path (12), a solid state gain medium (20) being arranged in the laser resonator (10), a Kerr medium device (30) being arranged with a distance from the gain medium (20) in the laser resonator (10), wherein the Kerr medium device (30) includes at least one Kerr medium being arranged in a focal range of the resonator beam path and being configured for forming the laser pulses by the nonlinear Kerr effect, and a loss-modulation device (31, 32) having a modulator medium, which is capable of modulating a power loss of the laser pulses generated in the laser resonator (10), wherein the Kerr medium device (30) includes the modulator medium of the loss- modulation device (31, 32) as the at least one Kerr medium having an optical non-linearity being adapted for both of creating the Kerr lens based mode-locking in the laser resonator and modulating the power loss in the laser resonator. Furthermore, a method of generating laser pulses by Kerr lens based mode locking is described, wherein a loss-modulation device (31, 32) is used for both of introducing a Kerr effect in the laser resonator (10) and modulating the power loss. |