Picosecond laser diodes with an external fiber cavity

Summary form only given. Pigtailed modules in which single mode (SM) fiber is used as an external cavity of mode-locked LD is a simple and effective design for miniature ultra-short light pulses generators. Output mirrors of such devices may be formed by dielectric films deposition on the external fiber facet or by writing of FBGs in fiber core. In the above mentioned works was used an active mode-locking of homogeneously pumped LDs. The present work continue recent study of passive mode-locking in similar devices obtained using LDs integrated with saturable absorbers as active elements. Three-segment LDs based on MOCVD grown GaAlAs double heterostructure had the ridge waveguide of 4 /spl mu/m width formed by ion etching. The described devices may be fabricated in form of small-size monolithic pigtailed modules, that can be applied separately as a simple and effective source of ps light pulses. It can also be used as master-oscillator in MOPA-system together with high-power traveling-wave semiconductor optical amplifier.