Novel semiconductor materials and saturable absorber mirrors for sub-10-fs pulse generation

Author

Schon, S. ; Haiml, M. ; Gallmann, L. ; Achermann, M. ; Keller, U.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Quantum Electron., Swiss Fed. Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

503

Lastpage

510

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of novel ultrabroadband AlGaAs/CaF₂ semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) for sub-10-fs pulse generation. AlGaAs/CaF₂ Bragg mirrors provide high reflection bandwidths covering the whole gain spectrum of Ti:sapphire lasers. GaAs layers epitaxially grown on CaF₂ win be shown to be an excellent choice for the operation as saturable absorber with high modulation depth and fast recovery times. A monolithical SESAM device consisting of AlGaAs/CaF₂ Bragg mirror and GaAs saturable absorber started and supported successfully mode-locking in a Ti:sapphire laser. Sub-10-fs pulses have been generated. A broad pulse spectrum with a transform limit of 5.9 fs shows the potential of AlGaAs/CaF₂ for sub-6-fs pulse generation.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; calcium compounds; gallium arsenide; laser mirrors; laser mode locking; optical pulse generation; optical saturable absorption; semiconductor epitaxial layers; 10 fs; Al₂O₃:Ti; AlGaAs-CaF₂; AlGaAs/CaF₂ Bragg mirror; GaAs; GaAs epitaxial layer; Ti:sapphire laser; gain spectrum; mode locking; modulation depth; monolithic device; recovery time; reflection bandwidth; semiconductor saturable absorber mirror; ultrashort pulse generation; Bandwidth; Gallium arsenide; Laser mode locking; Mirrors; Optical device fabrication; Optical pulse generation; Optical reflection; Pulse generation; Semiconductor lasers; Semiconductor materials;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices, 2000. COMMAD 2000. Proceedings Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6698-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/COMMAD.2000.1022998

Filename

1022998