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A passively mode-locked external-cavity semiconductor laser emitting 60-fs pulses

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 729–731 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Optical pulses with durations of a few tens of femtoseconds are used to drive applications ranging from attoscience to metrology1, but femtosecond lasers remain bulky and expensive items based on vibronic crystal or ytterbium-doped silica fibre gain media. Although, in principle, bandgap-engineered quantum-confined semiconductor materials have significant advantages in terms of their gain bandwidth and spectral versatility, semiconductor lasers have not, to date, been capable of generating comparably short pulses. Here, we describe an optically pumped InGaAs/GaAs quantum-well laser that is passively mode-locked using an intracavity semiconductor saturable absorber mirror2 that emits 60-fs pulses at 1,037 nm with an optical spectrum bandwidth of 20 nm (full-width at half-maximum). In this laser, fast optical Stark self-absorption modulation and strong gain saturation combine to shape pulses on the timescale of carrier–carrier scattering. The cavity contains a stable group of circulating pulses, regularly spaced at an interval fixed by the time over which the saturated gain recovers.

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Figure 1: Schematic showing the configuration of the laser.
Figure 2: Intensity autocorrelations of the laser output.
Figure 3: Dependence of pulse characteristics upon the SESAM temperature.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Adrian H. Quarterman, Keith G. Wilcox, Vasilis Apostolopoulos, Zakaria Mihoubi, Stephen P. Elsmere & Anne Tropper

  2. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

    Ian Farrer & David A. Ritchie

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  1. Adrian H. Quarterman
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  2. Keith G. Wilcox
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  3. Vasilis Apostolopoulos
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Contributions

A.H.Q. and K.G.W. contributed equally as first authors. A.H.Q. conducted the experiments and analysed the data. K.G.W. designed the samples and conducted the first experiments. V.A. wrote the paper and interpreted the data. Z.M. carried out the modelling, S.E. characterized the wafers, I.F. and D.A.R. provided molecular beam epitaxy growth, and A.C.T. interpreted data, supervised the project and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Vasilis Apostolopoulos.

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Quarterman, A., Wilcox, K., Apostolopoulos, V. et al. A passively mode-locked external-cavity semiconductor laser emitting 60-fs pulses. Nature Photon 3, 729–731 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.216

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