High peak-power picosecond pulse generation at 1.26 µm using a quantum-dot-based external-cavity mode-locked laser and tapered optical amplifier.
In this paper, we present the generation of high peak-power picosecond optical pulses in the 1.26 μm spectral band from a repetition-rate-tunable quantum-dot external-cavity passively mode-locked laser (QD-ECMLL), amplified by a tapered quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA). The laser emission wavelength was controlled through a chirped volume Bragg grating which was used as an external cavity output coupler. An average power of 208.2 mW, pulse energy of 321 pJ, and peak power of 30.3 W were achieved. Preliminary nonlinear imaging investigations indicate that this system is promising as a high peak-power pulsed light source for nonlinear bio-imaging applications across the 1.0 μm - 1.3 μm spectral range.
School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK. y.ding@dundee.ac.uk
Y
Y
Ding
R
R
Aviles-Espinosa
M A
MA
Cataluna
D
D
Nikitichev
M
M
Ruiz
M
M
Tran
Y
Y
Robert
A
A
Kapsalis
H
H
Simos
C
C
Mesaritakis
T
T
Xu
P
P
Bardella
M
M
Rossetti
I
I
Krestnikov
D
D
Livshits
Ivo
I
Montrosset
D
D
Syvridis
M
M
Krakowski
P
P
Loza-Alvarez
E
E
Rafailov
D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*