High precision optical characterization of semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors.
Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) have become a key element of many ultrafast laser sources, enabling passively modelocked lasers with >100 GHz repetition rate or with >10 microJ pulse energy. Precise knowledge of the nonlinear optical reflectivity is required to optimize the SESAMs for self-starting passive modelocking at record high repetition rates or pulse energies. In this article, we discuss a new method for wide dynamic range nonlinear reflectivity measurements. We achieve a higher accuracy (<0.05%) with a simpler and more cost-efficient measurement scheme compared with previous measurement systems. The method can easily be implemented for arbitrary wavelength regions and fluence ranges.
Maas
D J
DJ
Department of Physics, Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 16, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Rudin
B
B
Bellancourt
A-R
AR
Iwaniuk
D
D
Marchese
S V
SV
Südmeyer
T
T
Keller
U
U