2-$\mu$ m Mode-Locked Semiconductor Disk Laser Synchronously Pumped Using an Amplified Diode Laser

We report a mode-locked antimonide-based semiconductor disk laser operating at 2 $\mu$m, synchronously pumped with a pulsed source incorporating a 1.57- $\mu$m diode laser, a lithium niobate intensity modulator, and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The method for producing the pump signal utilizes commercially available telecom components and allows for convenient selection of the mode-locking harmonics. When compared with configurations based on mode-locked pump sources, the generation of pump pulses using amplitude modulation and digital data technology is simple and offers the possibility to actively lock the optical pulses to a stable clock.