High-power semiconductor disk lasers with record-short pulse durations

Abstract

Optically pumped ultrafast semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs), such as vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs, [1]) or modelocked integrated external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MIXSELs, [2]), are compact high-power gigahertz lasers with excellent beam quality. Since the first demonstration of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM, [3]) modelocked VECSEL [4], the performance of SDLs has been constantly improved and shows a clear trend towards shorter pulse durations and higher output powers (Fig. 1a and b) [5]. The targeted applications of these ultrafast gigahertz SDLs benefit from pulse durations of hundreds of femtoseconds combined with high pulse peak power and comprise, among others, telecommunication, multiphoton imaging, and frequency metrology.