Abstract

The pulses with large optical bandwidth can only be generated by implementation of dispersion compensation in the laser cavity. Either bulk- optic compensators or compensating fiber can accomplish dispersion management in the laser cavity. However, in all-fiber environmentally stable cavity designs, nonlinear effects in the fiber eventually limit the maximum extractable power. An attractive solution for dispersion control consists of a dispersive mirror structure in a form of Gires-Tournois interferometer (GTI) that includes a semiconductor saturable absorber.¹ This structure, i.e. dispersive saturable absorber mirror (D-SAM), is simple to fabricate and integrate into the laser cavity and can produce large amount of both negative and positive dispersion. Simultaneously a D-SAM provides an efficient mechanism to initiate and sustain the modelocking process.

© 2002 Optical Society of America