Watt-level and sub-100-fs self-starting mode-locked 2.4-µm Cr:ZnS oscillator enabled by GaSb-SESAMs.

Femtosecond lasers with high peak power at wavelengths above 2 µm are of high interest for generating mid-infrared (mid-IR) broadband coherent light for spectroscopic applications. Cr2+-doped ZnS/ZnSe solid-state lasers are uniquely suited since they provide an ultra-broad bandwidth in combination with watt-level average power. To date, the semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locked Cr:ZnS(e) lasers have been severely limited in power due to the lack of suitable 2.4-µm SESAMs. For the first time, we develop novel high-performance 2.4-µm type-I and type-II SESAMs, and thereby obtain state-of-the-art mode-locking performance. The type-I InGaSb/GaSb SESAM demonstrates a low non-saturable loss (0.8%) and an ultrafast recovery time (1.9 ps). By incorporating this SESAM in a 250-MHz Cr:ZnS laser cavity, we demonstrate fundamental mode-locking at 2.37 µm with 0.8 W average power and 79-fs pulse duration. This corresponds to a peak power of 39 kW, which is the highest so far for any saturable absorber mode-locked Cr:ZnS(e) oscillator. In the same laser cavity, we could also generate 120-fs pulses at a record high average power of 1 W. A comparable laser performance is achieved using type-II InAs/GaSb SESAM as well. These results pave the way towards a new class of high-power femtosecond SESAM mode-locked oscillators operating directly above 2-µm wavelength.

An efficient broad-band mid-wave IR fiber optic light source: design and performance simulation.

Design of a mid-wave IR (MWIR) broad-band fiber-based light source exploiting degenerate four-wave mixing (D-FWM) in a meter long suitably designed highly nonlinear (NL) chalcogenide microstructured optical fiber (MOF) is reported. This superior FWM bandwidth (BW) was obtained through precise tailoring of the fiber's dispersion profile so as to realize positive quartic dispersion at the pump wavelength. We consider an Erbium (Er(3+)) - doped continuous wave (CW) ZBLAN fiber laser emitting at 2.8 µm as the pump source with an average power of 5 W. Amplification factor as high as 25 dB is achievable in the 3 - 3.9 µm spectral range with average power conversion efficiency > 32%.