Passive Mode-Locking of a Ti : Sapphire Laser by InGaP Quantum-Dot Saturable Absorber

We demonstrate the use of a novel InGaP quantum-dot (QD) saturable absorber (SA) to induce passively mode-locked (ML) operation of a Ti : sapphire laser. Pulses as short as 518 fs are obtained at 752 nm with an average output power of up to 190 mW for 2.3 W of absorbed pump power at 532 nm. The absorption recovery of the SA is characterized by two decay coefficients: a fast and a slow component having time constants of 0.4 and 300 ps, respectively. The saturation fluence of the InGaP QDs was measured to be 28 ¿J/cm
²
, the initial low-signal absorption was 1.5%, where 1.15% was nonsaturable loss.