Abstract

The coupled cavity lasers can be used either to control the operation wavelength and to generate mode-locked pulses. In coupled-cavity (or interferential) mode-locking pulse shortening occurs by the coherent addition of self-phase modulated pulses and it acts essentially as an ideal fast saturable absorber mode-locking.^[1] Recently, we have demonstrated the application of this technique to a laser diode based system to produce short mode-locked pulses in a completely passive manner.^[2-3] Nevertheless, coupled-cavity mode-locking with bulk optical elements suffers from poor mechanical stability and low coupling efficiency. Integrating the coupled-cavity configuration as a laser diode active interferometer eliminates these problems. Owing to its high optical nonlinearity, a short semiconductor waveguide gives sufficient nonlinear phase shift for pulse shortening and thus a high repetition rate passive mode-locking can be achieved.

© 1992 IQEC