Intensity Correlation Analysis on Blue-Violet FemtosecondPulses from a Dispersion-Compensated GaInN Mode-LockedSemiconductor Laser Diode

Abstract

We investigated the spectral and temporal characteristics of blue-violetfemtosecond optical pulses generated by a passively mode-locked GaInN laser diode ina dispersion-compensated external cavity. The output optical pulses at 400 nm wereanalyzed in detail by intensity auto- and cross-correlation measurements using secondharmonic generation on the surface of a β-BaB2O4 crystal. The obtained results clarifiedwavelength-dependent chirp characteristics of the optical pulses. The analysis suggestedthat a large frequency shift due to saturation in the saturable absorber and gain sectionsplayed an important role in the generation of femtosecond optical pulses.

Keywords

• GaN
• mode-locked semiconductor laser diode
• gain saturation
• saturableabsorption
• self-phase modulation
• soliton-like mode locking