Abstract

The key to high power operation of semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs) is thermal management, which is usually accomplished by so-called flip-chip technique or by using an intracavity heat spreader. Normally it is assumed that the thermal management is applied to the gain medium only. However, the need for appropriate temperature control of the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) has been discussed in [1, 2]. In this work, the essential improvement of mode-locked laser performance is demonstrated for a SESAM equipped with intracavity heat spreader.

© 2011 Optical Society of America