Temporal Localized Structures in mode-locked Vertical External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how specially designed nonlinear mirrors in a mode-locked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser can generate temporal localized states, advancing the development of optical bits and frequency combs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel passive mode-locking scheme using a VECSEL and saturable absorber to produce stable temporal localized states.

Findings

Successful generation of TLSs in the proposed laser setup

Potential for creating three-dimensional confined states, light bullets

Simplified and robust approach to TLS generation

Abstract

Temporal Localized States (TLSs) are individually addressable structures traveling in optical resonators. They can be used as bits of information and to generate frequency combs with tunable spectral density. We show that a pair of specially designed nonlinear mirrors, a 1/2 Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser and a Semiconductor Saturable Absorber, coupled in self-imaging conditions, can lead to the generation of such TLSs. Our results indicate how a conventional passive mode- locking scheme can be adapted to provide a robust and simple system emitting TLSs and it paves the way towards the observation of three dimensions confined states, the so-called light bullets.