High-power picosecond pulse amplification and generation in field-effect GaAs-AlGaAs laser diodes with saturable absorption

The amplification and generation of picosecond optical pulses by a field-effect semiconductor traveling wave amplifier are investigated using modified traveling wave equations. It is shown that gain of a field-effect traveling wave amplifier at a constant applied electric field can be increased several times due to hot electron transfer from satellite to central valley. When the electric field is modulated synchronously with input pulses, a single pass gain as high as 10⁵ can be achieved. The modulation of the applied electric field can be used for the generation of high peak power picosecond optical pulses. The saturable absorption of photons in the active region of the field-effect laser leads to the generation of ultrashort optical pulses at an applied electric field