10-GHz train of sub-500-fs optical soliton-like pulses from a surface-emitting semiconductor laser

We report sub-500-fs operation of a passively mode-locked diode-pumped external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor laser at a repetition rate of 10.014 GHz. For an incident pump power of 706 mW, the laser produced 486-fs soliton-like pulses, with an average output power of 30.3 mW. The role of the ac Stark effect in shaping subpicosecond pulses is demonstrated.