Dilute nitride saturable absorber mirrors for optical pulse generation

GaAs-based dilute nitride semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors, SESAMs, have been developed and employed as cavity end mirrors of fibre lasers to produce ultra-short optical pulses over a wide spectral range. These devices are shown to be able to mode-lock diode-pumped erbium-doped and ytterbium-doped fibre lasers at around 1.55 and 1 µm, respectively, and produce reliable, self-starting picosecond pulse operation. The SESAM-equipped fibre lasers represent a promising route to designing a portable (sub-)picosecond light sources for low-cost maintenance turnkey operation for a variety of applications.