Optimizing the Cavity-Arm Ratio of V-Shaped Semiconductor Disk Lasers

Passively mode-locked semiconductor disk lasers have received tremendous attention from both sci-ence and industry. Their relatively inexpensive production combined with excellent pulse performance and great emission-wavelength flexibility make them suitable laser candidates for applications ranging from frequency-comb tomography to spectroscopy. However, due to the interaction of the active medium dynamics and the device geometry, emission instabilities occur at high pump powers and thereby limit their performance potential. Hence, understanding those instabilities becomes critical for an optimal laser design. Using a delay-differential equation model, we are able to detect, understand, and classify three distinct instabilities that limit the maximum achievable pump power for the fundamental mode-locking state and link them to characteristic positive-net-gain windows. We furthermore derive a simple analytic approximation in order to quantitatively describe the stability boundary. Our results enable us to predict the optimal laser-cavity configuration with respect to positive-net-gain instabilities and therefore may be of great relevance for the future development of passively mode-locking semiconductor disk lasers.

Automated summary

In this study, using a delay-differential equation model, three distinct instabilities that limit the maximum achievable pump power for passively mode-locked semiconductor disk lasers were detected, understood, and classified, and linked to characteristic positive-net-gain windows. A simple analytic approximation was derived to quantitatively describe the stability boundary. The results enable the prediction of optimal laser-cavity configurations with respect to positive-net-gain instabilities and are of great relevance for the future development of passively mode-locked semiconductor disk lasers.