FROG measured high-power 185-fs pulses generated by down-chirping of the dispersion-managed breathing-mode semiconductor mode-locked laser

A dispersion-managed breathing-mode mode-locked semiconductor ring laser generates linear down-chirped pulses which are dispersion compensated to duration as short as 185 fs and characterized by second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating. Down-chirping when compared to up-chirping allows broader mode-locked spectra and shorter pulse generation owing to the temporal and spectral semiconductor gain dynamics. The measured average output power is 14 mW at 323-MHz pulse repetition rate, implying a peak power of /spl sim/230 W, and a focused intensity of /spl sim/4.6 GW/cm/sup 2/. To our knowledge, this is the highest peak power and the shortest pulse generation from an electrically pumped all-semiconductor system, obtained only by linear chirp compensation.