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High Power Femtosecond Diode Lasers

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Ultrashort Pulse Laser Technology

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Optical Sciences ((SSOS,volume 195))

Abstract

We present a concept for a femtosecond laser based on a passively mode-locked semiconductor diode laser and a tapered amplifier. The absorption in the monolithically integrated quantum well absorber is controlled by a reverse voltage bias. Excellent mode-locking stability was observed without any rf modulation applied to gain current or absorber voltage. To avoid fast gain saturation and strong nonlinear pulse distortions within the tapered amplifier the technique of chirped pulse amplification is applied. In contrast to common chirped pulse amplification setups the oscillator emits pre-chirped pulses and a stretcher stage can be omitted. A pulse duration of 267 fs was achieved after compression in the colliding pulse mode-locking regime. For the first time we adapted this technique to the generation of tailored chirped pulses and investigated the influence of the collision point in an asymmetric two-section oscillator. This diode laser system is suited as a ultrafast pulse source for high power bulk or fiber amplifiers and paves a road to highly integrated laser systems.

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Abbreviations

ACF:

Autocorrelation function

ASE:

Amplified spontaneous emission

COD:

Catastrophic optical damage

CPA:

Chirped pulse amplification

CPML:

Colliding pulse mode-locking

DBR:

Distributed bragg reflector

DFB:

Distributed feedback

GD:

Group-delay

GDD:

Group-delay dispersion

MOPA:

Master-oscillator power-amplifier

QW:

Quantum well

SCPML:

Self-colliding pulse mode-locking

SPM:

Self-phase modulation

TA:

Tapered amplifier

\(A_{M} (\tau )\) :

Measured autocorrelation function

\(A_{S} (\tau )\) :

Autocorrelation function of \(I_{S} (t)\)

\(E_{pulse}\) :

Pulse energy

\(f(t)\) :

Pulse shape function

\(F^{*}\) :

Pulse shape factor

\(I_{S} (t)\) :

Temporal intensity of a bandwidth-limited pulse with the spectrum S

λ :

Wavelength

\(\Delta \lambda\) :

Spectral bandwidth

\(M^{2}\) :

Beam-quality factor

n :

Refractive index

\(\nu_{rep}\) :

Repetition rate

ω :

Angular frequency

\(\omega_{inst}\) :

Instantaneous angular frequency

\(\omega_{0}\) :

Carrier frequency

P :

Power

\(P_{\hbox{max} }^{ase}\) :

Maximum ASE power at zero input

\(P_{av}\) :

Average power of a pulse train

\(P_{in}\) :

Optical input power

\(P_{out}\) :

Optical output power

\(P_{peak}\) :

Pulse peak power

\(P_{sat}\) :

Saturation power of a tapered amplifier

\(P_{\hbox{max} }^{sig}\) :

Maximum signal output power at gain saturation

\(\varphi (\omega )\) :

Spectral phase

\(\frac{\partial \varphi }{\partial \omega }\) :

Group-delay (GD)

\(\frac{{\partial^{2} \varphi }}{{\partial \omega^{2} }}\) :

Group-delay dispersion (GDD)

R :

Reflectivity

\(\Delta s\) :

Optical path length

\(S(\omega )\) :

Optical pulse spectrum

\(\Delta t\) :

Delay

τ :

Temporal delay

\(\tau_{p}\) :

Pulse duration (FWHM)

\(U_{abs}\) :

DC absorber voltage bias

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank G. Erbert, A. Klehr and H. Wenzel (Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Berlin) for providing the diode laser components and detailed informations on the structure of these devices as well as for many helpful discussions. We also thank R. Wallenstein for his continuous support and interest in our work. This work was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (project number 13 N 8568).

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  1. Photonik-Zentrum Kaiserslautern e.V., Kohlenhofstrasse 10, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Thorsten Ulm, Florian Harth & Johannes L’huillier

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  1. Thorsten Ulm
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  1. Institute of Applied Physics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Stefan Nolte

  2. Institute of Applied Physics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Frank Schrempel

  3. Dausinger + Giesen GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany

    Friedrich Dausinger

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Ulm, T., Harth, F., L’huillier, J. (2016). High Power Femtosecond Diode Lasers. In: Nolte, S., Schrempel, F., Dausinger, F. (eds) Ultrashort Pulse Laser Technology. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 195. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17659-8_2

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