Picosecond pulse generation with 1.5 μm passively modelocked surface-emitting semiconductor laser

The authors report the first demonstration of an optically pumped passively modelocked surface-emitting semiconductor laser operating in the 1.5 /spl mu/m region. The modelocked laser emits pulses of 6.5 ps full width at half maximum duration with an average power of 13.5 mW at a fundamental repetition rate of 1.342 GHz. The peak power was 1.6 W.