Abstract

Diode-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs) have generated high average powers and circular diffraction-limited output beams,¹ and short pulse operation.² In this type of semiconductor laser, simple to manufacture, both the beam quality limitations of edge-emitting diode lasers and the power restrictions of electrically pumped surface-emitting lasers are overcome. The laser mode area on the chip can be ~10⁴ times larger than the one on the facet of an edge-emitting laser, offering scope for the generation of high average power and large pulse energy. Pulsed semiconductor lasers do not generally use the broad gain bandwidth to full advantage in the generation of sub-picosecond pulses. Here we show a breakthrough to the femtosecond level for Quantum-Well (QWs) VCSEL systems with high output power. We show a simple technology method to obtain fast recovery QW absorber in the picosecond scale with low non saturable losses.

© 2002 Optical Society of America