Coherent pulse propagation in a mode-locked argon laser

An investigation has been carried out on coherent pulse propagation effects in a mode-locked argon-ion laser. It is shown that this laser, when operated in a high-Q-cavity configuration, produces pulses exhibiting characteristics of coherent pulse propagation, including spectral power broadening and coherent ringing on the trailing edge of the pulses. A semiclassical model of the laser predicts results that are in good agreement with our experiment. The exploitation of these coherent effects in improving the performance of the mode-locked argon-ion laser, and of mode-locked lasers in general, is also discussed.