Picosecond passively mode-locked GaSb-based semiconductor disk laser operating at 2 μm

We report on a passively mode-locked optically pumped GaSb-based semiconductor disk laser producing stable picosecond optical pulses at a 1.95 mu m wavelength. The gain mirror was comprised of a 15 quantum well InGaSb/GaSb structure. A fast semiconductor saturable absorber mirror with three InGaSb/GaSb quantum wells was used to attain self-starting mode-locked operation at a fundamental repetition rate of 881.2 MHz. The laser produced pulses with 30 pJ energy and a duration of 1.1 ps within a factor of 2 of the Fourier limit. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America