Dilute nitride absorbers in passive devices for mode locking of solid-state lasers

Abstract

We report on the growth, material and nonlinear optical properties of GaInNAs quantum wells (QWs) used in semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) for passive mode locking of solid-state lasers in the telecommunication wavelength range from 1.3 to 1.55 μm. The antiresonant SESAMs were grown by molecular beam epitaxy with a nitrogen concentration of 1.6% and 2.6%, respectively. They were subject to rapid thermal annealing to fine-tune the absorption wavelength by blueshifting the photoluminescence wavelength. The appearance of QW intermixing upon thermal annealing was studied by X-ray rocking curve measurements. The thermal annealing procedure was proved not to alter the GaInNAs SESAM by QW intermixing for temperatures up to 800 °C. Optical characterization was applied to investigate the nonlinear SESAM properties. Degenerate pump-probe experiments revealed similar recovery times for both SESAMs in the tens of picoseconds range. We demonstrated stable self-starting passive cw mode locking with sub-10 ps pulses at 1314 and 1534 nm.