Picosecond passively mode-locked GaSb-based semiconductor disk laser operating at 2 μm.

We report on a passively mode-locked optically pumped GaSb-based semiconductor disk laser producing stable picosecond optical pulses at a 1.95 μm wavelength. The gain mirror was comprised of a 15 quantum well InGaSb/GaSb structure.

Passively Q-switched Tm3+, Ho3+-doped silica fiber laser using a highly nonlinear saturable absorber and dynamic gain pulse compression.

We demonstrate a compact core-pumped 2 microm Tm(3+), Ho(3+)- doped all-fiber laser passively Q-switched with an antimony-based saturable absorber. The 20 ns pulses are the shortest Q-switched pulses from a fiber laser operating beyond 1850 nm and were produced at a repetition rate of 57 kHz and pulse energy of 15 microJ using a short-length (4 ns) cavity. The large absorber modulation depth of approximately 70% together with transient gain compression is shown to provide an efficient mechanism for Q-switched pulse shortening.

Low jitter Q-switched fiber laser using optically driven surface-normal saturable absorber modulator.

A technique for stabilizing the repetition frequency of a passively Q-switched laser is presented using an optically driven surface-normal semiconductor modulator. A method is capable of significant reduction of the timing jitter in a passively Q-switched laser by optical triggering the saturable absorber semiconductor reflector. The experimental demonstration using passively Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser shows the jitter reduction by factor of 1.