Recent advances in ultrafast semiconductor disk lasers

Tilma, B. W.; Mangold, M.; Zaugg, C. A.; Link, Sandro M.; Waldburger, Dominik; Klenner, Alexander; Mayer, A.; Gini, E.; Golling, Matthias; Keller, U.

doi:10.1038/lsa.2015.83

Cited by 164 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 163 publications

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“…Vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) or modelocked integrated external-cavity surfaceemitting lasers (MIXSELs) [17] can lead to compact and costeffective frequency comb systems in the future. However, no such modelocked laser has ever been CEO-frequency-stabilized yet.…”

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confidence: 99%

First investigation of the noise and modulation properties of the carrier-envelope offset in a modelocked semiconductor laser

et al. 2016

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We present the first characterization of the noise properties and modulation response of the carrier-envelope offset (CEO) frequency in a semiconductor modelocked laser. The CEO beat of an optically-pumped vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) at 1030 nm was characterized without standard f -to-2f interferometry. Instead, we used an appropriate combination of signals obtained from the modelocked oscillator and an auxiliary continuous-wave laser to extract information about the CEO signal. The estimated linewidth of the free-running CEO beat is approximately 1.5 MHz at 1-s observation time, and the feedback bandwidth to enable a tight CEO phase lock to be achieved in a future stabilization loop is in the order of 300 kHz. We also characterized the amplitude and phase of the pump current to CEO-frequency transfer function, which showed a 3-dB bandwidth of ∼300 kHz for the CEO frequency modulation. This fulfills the estimated required bandwidth and indicates that the first self-referenced phase-stabilization of a modelocked semiconductor laser should be feasible in the near future. Optical frequency combs from modelocked solid-state lasers have been a revolution in the field of high precision metrology by directly and coherently linking the optical and microwave parts of the electromagnetic spectrum [1][2][3]. Such stabilized frequency combs enable the measurement of optical frequencies with an extreme precision [4,5] and constitute a key element of novel optical atomic clocks that have surpassed the best microwave frequency standards in terms of fractional frequency stability [6,7]. Most comb applications today require self-referencing, i.e., the detection and stabilization of the carrier envelope offset (CEO) frequency f CEO [1,8]. This has been achieved in various fiber laser systems [9] and solid-state lasers (Ti:sapphire [2] or diode-pumped solid-state lasers-DPSSLs [10,11]). Electronic feedback modulating the pump power of the femtosecond laser is the most common approach to phase-stabilize f CEO to an external reference frequency [3]. Alternative methods have been demonstrated, which make use of an intracavity loss modulator enabling the modulation bandwidth to be extended beyond the gain lifetime limitation, such as a graphene electro-optic modulator [12] or an opto-optical modulation of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [13]. Other solutions are based on feedforward corrections applied to the CEO frequency [14] or passive CEO cancellation using a difference frequency generation (DFG) process [15].Self-referencing modelocked lasers with a high repetition rate in the GHz range is much more challenging, as the CEO noise typically scales with the repetition rate [16], therefore requiring larger feedback bandwidths. In addition, the standard self-referencing method most often involves f -to-2f interferometry to detect the CEO frequency [1]. This requires a coherent supercontinuum (SC) spectrum that covers at least one frequency octave, which is fairly challenging to achieve fo...

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First investigation of the noise and modulation properties of the carrier-envelope offset in a modelocked semiconductor laser

et al. 2016

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“…Optically-pumped vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) [1] are a rapidly evolving technology which exhibits a wide spectral coverage in an inexpensive and compact setup [2][3][4][5]. Their foundation on semiconductor technology has the major advantage of emission wavelength flexibility which is easily achieved by bandgap engineering.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Pulsed operation of VECSELs can be obtained in the femtosecond and picosecond regime [3,4,14]. Typically, a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [15] is used for pulse formation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in contrast to the demonstrated spectral coverage of VECSELs in the CWregime, pulsed operation has been so far limited to wavelengths up to the 2 μm-range [23] and the best performance is obtained in the spectral region between 800 and 1200 nm [3]. This limitation in emission wavelength can be remedied by nonlinear frequency down-conversion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ultrafast optical parametric oscillator pumped by a vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL)

et al. 2017

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Abstract:We report the first optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by a SESAM modelocked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL). As a nonlinear medium, we use a periodically poled MgO:PPLN crystal. The VECSEL operates at a wavelength of 982 nm and a repetition rate of 198 MHz. The pump radiation is converted to signal and idler wavelengths tunable in the ranges of 1.4-1.8 µm and 2.2-3.5 μm, respectively, simply by a change of the poling period and crystal temperature. The signal pulses have a duration between 2 ps to 4 ps and an average output power up to 100 mW.

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“…One highly promising technology relies on semiconductor lasers, such as vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs) or mode-locked integrated external cavity surface emitting lasers (MIXSELs) [6]. Such lasers are promising for future low-cost high-volume production, but no CEO stabilization has ever been demonstrated so far based on this technology, as a consequence of their insufficient peak power.…”

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Characterizing the carrier-envelope offset in an optical frequency comb without traditional f-to-2f interferometry

et al. 2015

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We present a new method to measure the frequency noise and modulation response of the carrier-envelope offset (CEO) beat of an optical frequency comb that does not make use of the traditional f -to-2f interferometry. Instead, we use an appropriate combination of different signals to extract the contribution of the CEO frequency without directly detecting it. We present a proof-of-principle validation realized with a commercial Er:fiber frequency comb and show an excellent agreement with the results obtained using a standard f -to-2f interferometer. This approach is attractive for the characterization of novel frequency comb technologies for which self-referencing is challenging, such as semiconductor mode-locked lasers, microresonator-based systems, or GHz repetition rate lasers. Optical frequency combs from mode-locked lasers have revolutionized the field of optical metrology in the last decade. They provide a direct and coherent link between the microwave and optical frequency domains, enabling the measurement of optical frequencies with extreme precision. A frequency comb constitutes a frequency ruler in the optical spectral domain [1], which is characterized by two radio frequencies (RF), the repetition rate f rep , and the carrier-envelope offset (CEO) frequency f CEO . The repetition rate corresponds to the spacing between the comb modes, and f CEO represents the global frequency shift of the comb spectrum from the origin. Therefore, the frequency ν N of each comb mode depends only on three parameters (N is the mode number):Many applications require a fully stabilized comb, where both f rep and f CEO are phase-locked. Whereas the stabilization of f rep is fairly direct by controlling the cavity length using a piezo-electric transducer, the detection and stabilization of f CEO are more challenging. The standard self-referencing method [2] requires an octave-spanning spectrum that is usually obtained by spectral broadening in a nonlinear medium such as a highly nonlinear fiber, a photonic crystal fiber or an integrated waveguide. Other methods that are less demanding in terms of spectral width of the comb spectrum were based on optical frequency dividers in the early days of frequency combs [3] or make use of higher-order nonlinear processes, such as 2f -to-3f [4,5].The ability to achieve a tight phase-lock of the CEO beat strongly depends on its free-running frequency noise and on the capability to control f CEO using a suitable actuator with a sufficient bandwidth. The standard method involves modulating the pump power of the femtosecond laser, which is realized by a direct modulation of the injection current in diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSLs) or fiber lasers.Today, there is a strong demand for novel compact and costeffective frequency comb systems. One highly promising technology relies on semiconductor lasers, such as vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs) or mode-locked integrated external cavity surface emitting lasers (MIXSELs) [6]. Such lasers are promising for future low...

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Recent advances in ultrafast semiconductor disk lasers

Cited by 164 publications

References 163 publications

First investigation of the noise and modulation properties of the carrier-envelope offset in a modelocked semiconductor laser

First investigation of the noise and modulation properties of the carrier-envelope offset in a modelocked semiconductor laser

Ultrafast optical parametric oscillator pumped by a vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL)

Characterizing the carrier-envelope offset in an optical frequency comb without traditional f-to-2f interferometry

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