Abstract
Picosecond pulse generation from semiconductor lasers has been previously demonstrated using the techniques of active and passive mode-locking.1 A different mode-locking technique, which to date was rarely used successfully in any laser system, is FM mode-locking.2 The technique of FM mode-locking, in which the optical frequency is modulated with a period that equals the round-trip time of the laser resonator, offers the possibility of obtaining very short pulses provided that a sufficient frequency sweep and a proper intracavity dispersion are obtained. The main reason for not using FM mode-locking has been the difficulty of frequency modulation in general, and of continuous frequency tuning in particular. Modern distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers offer a convenient way to modulate the optical frequency.3 The use of these components as the amplifying medium in an external cavity laser structure, can produce a compound laser in which short optical pulses can be generated by FM mode-locking. We report here such a laser structure in which we demonstrate the successful generation of 24-ps pulses by FM mode-locking.
© 1991 Optical Society of America
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