Nonabsorbing Mirrors for Quantum-Well Colliding Pulse Mode-Locked Lasers

We present results from GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well colliding-pulse mode-locked lasers emitting pulses at 830 nm with a repetition rate of 20 GHz. In particular we investigate the effects of nonabsorbing mirrors on the output power characteristics of these devices in mode-locking operation. Under best mode-locking conditions, the lasers with nonabsorbing mirrors show ~10% shorter pulses (1.84 ps) and narrower radio-frequency peaks but operate with less average power.