Abstract

Compact and efficient sources of high repetition rate, high peak power optical pulses are needed to replace the standard ultrashort optical pulse generation schemes due to their relatively large size and poor wall plug efficiency [1]. These compact laser systems will find applications in areas spanning laser radar, applied nonlinear optics, such as optical computing and photonic switching, and optical time domain reflectometry. In this paper, we describe the first external cavity hybrid mode locked semiconductor laser system, which can produce optical pulses of 0.56 psec in duration with 38 watts of peak power. The peak powers obtained from this system represent the highest ever obtained from an all semiconductor laser system.

© 1990 Optical Society of America