Improved self mode-locking semiconductor disk laser (SDL)

摘要

A self mode locking laser 1comprises a resonator 2 terminated by first 3 and second 4 mirrors and folded by a third mirror 5. The third mirror comprises a reflector surmounted by a multilayer semiconductor gain medium that includes at least one quantum well layer and an optical Kerr lensing layer. A perturbator is also included that provides a means to induce a perturbation on an intensity of one or more cavity modes of the resonator. The pertubator is employed to induce a small perturbation on the intensity of the cavity modes of the resonator which is sufficient for the optical Kerr lensing layer to induce mode locking on the output field. The second mirror 4 comprises an intensity saturable mirror that provides a means for reducing the pulse widths of the generated output field e.g. to around 100 fs.