Passively Q-switched mode-locking of diode-pumped Nd : YVO4 laser with GaAs intracavity absorber grown at low temperature

Using a low temperature grown GaAs wafer as an intracavity saturable absorber, a temporal envelope duration of 11 ns of Q- switched and mode- locked ( QML) 1064 nm operation was achieved in a very simple compact plane- concave cavity Nd: YVO4 laser, it was so short that the pulses can be used as Q- switching pulses. The maximal average output power is 808 mW with the repetition rate of 25 kHz, and the corresponding peak power and energy of a single Q- switched pulse was 2.94 kW and 32.3 mu J, respectively. The mode- locked pulse trains inside the Q- switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of 800 MHz.

High-average-power and high-conversion-efficiency continuous wave mode-locked Nd : YVO4 laser with a semiconductor absorber mirror

A high-power continuous wave (cw) mode-locked Nd:YVO4 solid-state laser was demonstrated by use of a semiconductor absorber mirror (SAM). The maximum average output power was 8.1 W and the optic-to-optic conversion efficiency was about 41 %. At the maximum incident pump power, the pulse width was about 8.6 ps and the repetition rate was 130 MHz. Experimental results indicated that this absorber was suitable for high power mode-locked solid-state lasers. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A bidirectionall diode-pumped, passively mode-locked Nd : YVO4 ring laser with a low-temperature-grown semiconductor saturable absorber mirror

We report the operation of a bidirectional picosecond pulsed ring Nd:YVO4 laser based on a low-temperature-grown semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. Except for the laser crystal, the six-mirror ring laser cavity has no intra-cavity elements such as focusing lens or mirror. The bidirectional mode locked pluses are obtained at the repetition rate of 117.5 MHz, pulse duration of 81 ps, power of 2 x 200 mW.

Measurement of small-signal and large-signal responses of packaged laser modules at high temperature

In this paper, the pulsed injection method is extended to measure the chip temperature of various packaged laser modules, such as the DFB laser modules, the FP laser modules, and the EML laser modules. An optimal injection condition is obtained by investigating the dependence of the lasing wavelength on the width and period of the injection pulse in a relatively wide temperature range. The small-signal frequency responses and large-signal performances of packaged laser modules at different chip temperature are measured. The adiabatic small-signal modulation characteristics of packaged LD are first extracted. In the large-signal measurement, the effects of chip temperature, bias current and driving signal on the performances of the laser modules are discussed. It has been found that the large-signal performances of the EML modules depend on the different red-shift speeds of the DFB and EAM sections as chip temperature varying, and the optimal characteristics may be achieved at higher temperature.

Passively Q-switched Nd : GdVO4 laser with In0.25Ga0.75As being an output coupler

We report a diode-end-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 laser operating at 1.06 mu m with In0.25Ga0.75As being the saturable absorber as well as an output coupler. Q-switched pulses with a pulse duration of 20 ns, pulse energy 4.2 mu J and pulse repetition rate 200 kHz were produced, corresponding to peak power of 210 W. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experiments of a diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4/LT-GaAs Q-switched and mode-locked laser

A diode-pumped passively Q-switched mode-locked (QML) Nd:GdVO4 laser with a low temperature GaAs (LT-GaAs) saturable absorber is presented. The maximal Q-switched mode-locked average output power was 798 mW with the Q-switched envelop having a repetition rate of 125 kHz. The mode-locked pulse trains inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of similar to 750 MHz. The laser properties of the operational parameters on the pump power were also investigated experimentally.

Simultaneous Q switching and mode locking with narrow envelope width in a microchip Nd : YVO4 laser with a composite semiconductor absorber

By using a composite semiconductor absorber and an output coupler, we demonstrated a Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped microchip Nd:YVO4 laser. With a 350-mu m-thick crystal, the width of the Q-switched envelope was as short as 12 ns; the repetition rate of the mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched pulse was more than 10 GHz. The average output power was 335 mW at a maximum pump power of 1.6 W. Q-switched envelope widths of 21 and 31 ns were also achieved with crystals 0.7 and 1.0 mm thick, respectively.

Diode-end-pumped passively CW mode-locked Nd : YLF laser by the LT-In0.25Ga0.75As absorber

We have demonstrated a self-staring passively continuous-wave mode-locked diode end-pumped Nd:YLF laser with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror of single-quantum-well (In0.25Ga0.75As) grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition technique at low temperature. The saturable absorber was used as nonlinear absorber and output coupler simultaneously. Stable pulse duration of 3 ps has been achieved at the repetition rate of 98 MHz. The average output power was 530 mW at 1053 nm under the incident pump power of 10 W, corresponding to the peak power of 1.8 kW and pulse energy of 5.4 nJ.

Experimental investigation of intracavity absorber low temperature GaAs in diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser

A passively Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:GdVO4 laser was demonstrated using a low-temperature-grown GaAs wafer (LT-GaAs) as an intracavity saturable absorber. The maximal Q-switched mode-locked average output power was 750 mW with the Q-switched envelop having a repetition rate of 167 kHz. The mode-locked pulse trains inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of similar to 790 MHz.

GaAs absorber grown at low temperature used in passively Q-switched diode pumped solid state laser

We report, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, on a passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser with a GaAs absorber grown at low temperature (LT) by metal organic vapor phase expitaxy. Using the LT GaAs absorber as well as an output coupler, a passively Q-switched laser whose pulse duration is as short as 90 ns, was obtained.

Thermal lensing effect in ridge structure InGaN multiple quantum well laser diodes

Time-resolved light-current curves, spectra, and far-field distributions of ridge structure InGaN multiple quantum well laser diodes grown on sapphire substrate are measured with a temporal resolution of 0.1 ns under a pulsed current condition. Results show that the thermal lensing effect clearly improves the confinement of the higher order modes. The thermal lens leads to a lower threshold current for the higher order modes, a higher slope efficiency, and a change in the lasing mode of the device. The threshold current for the higher modes decreases by about 5 mA in every 10 ns in a pulse, and the slope efficiency increases by 7.5 times on the average when higher modes lase. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

High-repetition rate Q-switched Nd : YVO4 laser with a composite semiconductor absorber

A diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser passively Q switched by a semiconductor absorber is demonstrated. The Q-switched operation of the laser has an average output power of 135 mW with a 1.6 W incident pump power. The minimum pulse width is measured to be about 8.3 ns with a repetition rate of 2 MHz. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a solid-state laser passively Q-switched by such a composite semiconductor absorber. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Experimental study of a pulsed ytterbium-doped fibre laser with fast and slow saturable absorbers in a linear cavity

We present a linear-cavity stretched-pulse fibre laser with mode locking by a nonlinear polarization rotation and by semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors. A Q-switched mode-locking cw train and a mode-locking pulse train are obtained in the experiment. We investigate the effects of the equivalent fast saturable absorber and the slow saturable absorbers in experiment. It is found that neither the nonlinear polarization evolution effect nor a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror is enough to produce the stable cw mode-locking pulses in this experiment. A nonlinear polarization evolution effect controls the cavity loss to literally carve the pulses; semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors provide the self-restarting and maintain the stability of the mode-locking operation.

MQW electroabsorption modulator-integrated DFB laser modules for high-speed transmission

Details of the design, fabrication and testing of a strained InGaAsP/InGaAsP multiple quantum well (MQW) electroabsorption modulator (EAM) monolithically integrated with a DFB laser by ultra-low-pressure selective area growth (SAG) are presented. The method greatly simplifies the integration process. A study of the controllability of band-gap energy by SAG has been performed. After being completely packaged in a seven-pin butterfly compact module, the device successfully performs 10 Gb s(-1) nonreturn to zero (NRZ) operation on uncompensated transmission span >53 km in a standard fibre with a 8.7 dB dynamic extinction ratio. A receiver sensitivity of -18.9 dBm at a bit error rate (BER) of 10(-10) is confirmed. 10 GHz short pulse trains with 15.3 ps pulsewidth have also been generated.

Q-switched and mode-locked diode-pumped Nd : GdVO4 laser with low temperature GaAs saturable absorber

Low temperature GaAs (LT-GaAs) was successfully grown at the temperature of 550 degrees C by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy on a semi-insular GaAs substrate. With such an absorber as well as an output coupler we obtain Q-switched mode-locked (QML) 1064 nm Nd:GdVO4 laser pumped by diode laser with high repetition rate, formed with a simple flat-flat cavity. The repetition rate of the Q-switched envelope increased from 100 to 660 kHz as the pump power increased from 2.28 to 7.29 W. The mode-locked pulses inside the Q-switched pulse envelope had a repetition rate of similar to 1.36 GHz. A maximum average output power of 953 mW was obtained. The dependence of the operational parameters on the pump power was also investigated experimentally. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.