title: 220-fs erbium-ytterbium:glass laser mode locked by a broadband low-loss silicon/germanium saturable absorber.
abstract: We demonstrate femtosecond performance of an ultrabroadband high-index-contrast saturable Bragg reflector consisting of a silicon/silicon dioxide/germanium structure that is fully compatible with CMOS processing. This device offers a reflectivity bandwidth of over 700 nm and subpicosecond recovery time of the saturable loss. It is used to achieve mode locking of an Er-Yb:glass laser centered at 1540 nm, generating 220-fs pulses, with what is to our knowledge the broadest output spectrum to date.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. felixg@mit.edu
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Grawert
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Gopinath
authors.forename: F O
authors.initials: FO
authors.lastname: Ilday
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Ippen
authors.forename: F X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akiyama
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Kimerling