Picosecond trigger system useful in mode-locked laser pulse measurements

A highly sensitive tunnel diode trigger useful in temporal intensity build-up measurements of mode-locked lasers has been developed; the device reduces notably the time walk due to the lack of repeatability in intensity of the laser output. The performance of the trigger have been established by means of a GHz wideband-0.1V/cm sensitive real-time oscilloscope and of an image converter camera having a picosecond resolution: the experimental results show that a variation of the amplitude of the laser pulse train of a factor 5 leads to a time jitter of less than 30 ps (Auth.)