Modal analysis of noise propagation in a femtosecond oscillator

Abstract: We study noise propagation dynamics in a femtosecond oscillator by injecting external noise on the pump intensity. We utilize a spectrally-resolved homodyne detection technique that enables simultaneous measurement of amplitude and phase quadrature noises of different spectral bands of the oscillator. To reveal the impact of added pump noise on the oscillator noise, we perform a modal analysis of the oscillator noise in which each mode corresponds to a particular temporal/spectral shape of the pulsed light. We compare this modal approach with the conventional noise detection methods and find the superiority of our method in particular unveiling a complete physical picture of noise distribution in femtosecond oscillator.