Title :
Erbium-ytterbium waveguide laser mode-locked with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror
Author :
Thoen, E.R. ; Jones, David J. ; Kartner, Franz X. ; Ippen, Erich P ; Kolodziejski, Leslie A.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
Picosecond pulses are produced using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror in a laser based on an Er-Yb codoped planar waveguide amplifier. Continuous-wave mode-locking (CWML) with 9.8-ps pulses is obtained at repetition rates up to 100 MHz. With intracavity spectral filtering, saturable pulsewidths of 1 ps are achieved, and tunable picosecond pulses are obtained from 1534 to 1553 nm. Absorber characterization suggests that two-photon absorption within the saturable absorber mirror influences the CWML stability.
Keywords :
erbium; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser mode locking; laser stability; laser tuning; optical planar waveguides; optical pulse generation; optical saturable absorption; optical waveguide filters; solid lasers; two-photon processes; waveguide lasers; ytterbium; 1 ps; 100 MHz; 1534 to 1553 nm; 9.8 ps; Er,Yb codoped planar waveguide amplifier; Er,Yb waveguide laser; absorber characterization; continuous-wave mode-locking; intracavity spectral filtering; laser stability; mode-locked laser; picosecond pulses; repetition rates; saturable absorber mirror; saturable pulsewidths; semiconductor saturable absorber mirror; tunable picosecond pulses; two-photon absorption; Filtering; Laser mode locking; Mirrors; Optical pulses; Planar waveguides; Pulse amplifiers; Semiconductor lasers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Semiconductor waveguides; Waveguide lasers;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
