Open AccessMultipulse instabilities of a femtosecond SESAM-modelocked VECSEL
Author(s) -
Dominik Waldburger,
C. G. E. Alfieri,
Sandro M. Link,
Stefan Meinecke,
Lina Jaurigue,
Kathy Lüdge,
U. Keller
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.021872
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , femtosecond , laser , mode locking , saturable absorption , optoelectronics , semiconductor laser theory , fiber laser , physics
Optically pumped passively modelocked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) can generate pulses as short as 100 fs with an intracavity semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). Very stable soliton modelocking can be obtained, however, the high-Q-cavity, the short gain lifetime, and the kinetic-hole burning can also support rather complex multipulse instabilities which we analyze in more details here. This onset of multipulse operation limits the maximum average output power with fundamental modelocking and occurs at the roll-over of the cavity round trip reflectivity. Unfortunately, such multipulse operation sometimes can mimic stable modelocking when only limited diagnostics are available.