2-$\mu$m Mode-Locked Semiconductor Disk Laser Synchronously Pumped Using an Amplified Diode Laser

Abstract

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> We report a mode-locked antimonide-based semiconductor disk laser operating at 2 <formula formulatype="inline"><tex>$\mu$</tex></formula>m, synchronously pumped with a pulsed source incorporating a 1.57-<formula formulatype="inline"> <tex>$\mu$</tex></formula>m diode laser, a lithium niobate intensity modulator, and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The method for producing the pump signal utilizes commercially available telecom components and allows for convenient selection of the mode-locking harmonics. When compared with configurations based on mode-locked pump sources, the generation of pump pulses using amplitude modulation and digital data technology is simple and offers the possibility to actively lock the optical pulses to a stable clock. </para>