Femtosecond synchronously in-well pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser

Wei Zhang,Gail Mcconnell,Thorsten Ackemann,Alison Mcdonald,Erling Riis

doi:10.1364/oe.18.000187

Abstract

We demonstrate the first synchronously in-well pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL). Depending on the cavity mismatch, laser pulses with a duration from 1 ps to 7 ps at a repetition rate of 76 MHz were generated directly from the laser at 860 nm. The application of extra-cavity pulse compression further shortened the pulse to a duration of 210 fs providing a peak power of 226 W.

Highlights

Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) have been demonstrated to produce high continuous wave (CW) average output powers with excellent beam quality [1]
We demonstrate the first synchronously in-well pumped verticalexternal-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL)
The application of extra-cavity pulse compression further shortened the pulse to a duration of 210 fs providing a peak power of 226 W

Summary

Introduction

Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) have been demonstrated to produce high continuous wave (CW) average output powers with excellent beam quality [1]. Most successful experiments have focused on passive mode locking using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [2] resulting in the generation of sub500 fs pulses [3] at high repetition rates [4] with high average output powers [5] These devices operate in a regime commensurate with the requirements of optical communications systems. The short energy storage time in the semiconductor gain medium favors the high repetition rates achieved and results in a relatively modest peak power of the individual pulse of order up to ~100 W [3, 5] This makes them unsuitable for biological imaging applications, e.g. two photon microscopy [6] and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy [7], where higher peak power pulses are required to increase the efficiency of the nonlinear optical processes. Operation at low repetition rates (10-100 MHz) is preferable to due to the lifetimes of the fluorescent markers typically used in biological imaging

Methods

Results

Conclusion