We analyze theoretically and numerically the nonlinear process of pulse formation in mode-locked lasers, starting from a perturbation of a continuous wave. Focusing on weak-to-moderate dispersion systems, we show that pulse growth is initially slow, dominated by a cascade of energy from low to high axial modes, followed by fast strongly nonlinear growth, and finally relaxation to the stable pulse wave form. The pulse grows initially by condensing a fixed amount of energy into a decreasing time interval, with peak power growing toward a finite-time singularity that is checked when the gain bandwidth is saturated by the pulse.

• Received 4 September 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.011801