Actively mode-locked fiber laser with semiconductor all-optical modulator

In this paper, we report on an actively mode-locked 1.56-mum erbium fiber laser using all-optical surface-normal semiconductor modulator. The 1.56-mum modulator is a purposely-designed semiconductor modulator mirror (SEMM) exploiting saturable absorption in the multiple quantum-well structure with enhanced modulation depth. Conceptually, the SEMM structure is very similar to the absorber mirrors used for passive mode-locking, except for higher values of saturation fluence and recovery time as compared to typical parameters for SESAMs