An antiresonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorber for passive mode-locking fabricated by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy and ion implantation design, characterization, and mode-locking

Abstract

We have fabricated GaAs-based antiresonant Fabry-Perot saturable absorbers (A-FPSAs) for passive mode-locking near infrared solid-state lasers using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) growth followed by ion implantation and optional thermal annealing. We present differential reflectivity measurements showing the effect of ion implantation and annealing. The devices were characterized for their large-signal response including saturation fluence, modulation depth, and nonbleachable losses-important parameters for passive mode-locking. Finally, we demonstrate mode-locking using our samples within a Ti:sapphire laser observing stable and reliable self-starting, pulses in the 100-fs range, and 50-nm tunability. Results of computer simulations are in good agreement with the experiments.