Graphene saturable absorber for high power semiconductor disk laser mode-locking

Here, we report on the development of an antiresonant graphene-based one-dimensional structure which allows the control of linear and nonlinear device performance through optical confinement. A record average output in excess of 10W is achieved by integrating this antiresonant graphene saturable absorber mirror into a vertical-external-cavity-surface-emitting-laser at 1030 nm, which leads to strong evidence of mode-locking, generating pulses with energies up to 2.8 nJ and a pulsewidth of 353 fs. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.