Abstract
We have investigated passive mode-locking of Tm,Ho:YAG lasers with GaInAs- and GaSb-based semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs). With a GaInAs-based SESAM, stable dual-wavelength mode-locking operation was achieved at 2091 nm and 2097 nm, generating pulses with duration of 56.9 ps and a maximum output power of 285 mW. By using the GaSb-based SESAMs, we could generate mode-locked pulses as short as 21.3 ps at 2091 nm with a maximum output power of 63 mW. We attribute the shorter pulse duration obtained with the GaSb SESAMs to the ultrafast recovery time of the absorption and higher nonlinearity compared to standard GaInAs SESAMs.
Highlights
Ultrashort laser sources operating near 2 μm eye-safe spectral range are of special importance for applications in light detection and ranging (LIDAR), frequency metrology, time-resolved spectroscopy, laser microsurgery, free space optical communication, optical pumping of solid state lasers and optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) in mid- and far-infrared spectral regions
We have investigated passive mode-locking of Tm,Ho:YAG lasers with GaInAs- and GaSb-based semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs)
We have compared the performance of passively mode-locked Tm,Ho:YAG lasers employing GaInAs and GaInSb SESAMs
Summary
Ultrashort laser sources operating near 2 μm eye-safe spectral range are of special importance for applications in light detection and ranging (LIDAR), frequency metrology, time-resolved spectroscopy, laser microsurgery, free space optical communication, optical pumping of solid state lasers and optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) in mid- and far-infrared spectral regions. First demonstration of a passively mode-locked laser at 2 μm was based on using a GaInAs SESAM [2]. Since a large variety of saturable absorbers, such as GaSb-based SESAMs [7,8,9,10,11], SWCNTs [12], intersubband transitions (ISBTs) in quantum wells [13], PbS quantum dots [14], and graphene [15] have been employed in 2 μm bulk lasers. SESAMs, have gained precedence for mode-locking a large variety of bulk laser because of their simplicity of use and fabrication, reliability, and capability to tailor their parameters to satisfy specific laser requirements, i.e. absorption band, contrast, non-saturable losses, absorption recovery time
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