Wafer-Fused 1310 nm and 1550 nm Mode-Locked Semiconductor Disk Lasers

We report on fabrication and performance of wafer fused, high power, passively mode-locked semiconductor disc lasers operating in 1310 nm and 1550 nm bands. These devices comprise gain mirrors based on InAlGaAs/InP multi quantum well active regions fused to AlGaAs/GaAs-based DBRs as well as wafer fused saturable absorbers of a similar design for devices emitting at 1310 nm and monolithic GaInNAs saturable absorbers for devices emitting in the 1550 nm band. Intra-cavity wedged diamond heat spreaders capillary-bonded to gain mirrors provide efficient heat removal from the gain structure resulting in record-low thermal impedance of the order of 2 K/W. These devices produce average optical output power and pulse width of 100 mW and 6.4 ps at 1310 nm and 600 mW and 16 ps at 1550 nm.