Generation of subpicosecond pulses from an actively mode locked GaAs laser in an external ring cavity

Abstract

We report the active mode locking of the emission from a GaAs buried optical guide laser in an external ring cavity. The two counter rotating pulses interact in the laser which in addition to the gain medium contains a saturable absorber at one facet introduced by proton bombardment at 600 keV with a 3×1015 cm−2 dosage level. Bursts of pulses with 0.56 psec FWHM at a 625-MHz repetition rates have been obtained.