Mode-locked picosecond pulse generation from high power phase-locked GaAs laser arrays

Abstract

A diffraction-coupled laser array has been actively mode locked in an external cavity to yield Gaussian pulses as short a 61-ps full width at half-maximum with a peak power of 1.1 W and an average power of 0.07 W. The array consists of 10 lasers, each 3 μm wide with 9-μm center to center spacing. It emits with a stable double-lobed far-field pattern characteristic of the out-of-phase coupling between neighboring lasers. These arrays may be useful where high peak as well as high average optical powers are required.