New frontiers of ultrafast semiconductor disk lasers

In this work, novel achievements in the field of ultrafast semiconductor disk lasers (SDL) are discussed. Using this highly promising technology, new frontiers and improved results are outlined. First, power scaling to record high average output power levels was achieved by utilizing our novel integrated ultrafast semiconductor disk technology, the mode-locked integrated external cavity surface-emitting laser (MIXSEL). It combines the two key elements of ultrafast SDLs, the vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) and the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), in one single structure. This absorber integration is possible, because both elements consist of semiconductor layer stacks of the same material system. The full integration of those mode-locked lasers is a very important step for making this technology accessible to many applications, where other ultrafast lasers are too expensive, complex, bulky, or fragile. In addition, an ultrastable laser prototype was developed and fabricated, in order to investigate low-noise performance of SESAM mode-locked VECSELs. We achieved the lowest timing jitter ever reported for this kind of laser. The investigation of noise properties is very important for the evaluation of the usability of such ultrafast laser sources for applications that are sensitive to fluctuations in power or timing of the emitted pulse train.