SESAM
2022: Chapter 7 in the textbook "Ultrafast Lasers" gives a comprehensive explanation of the SESAM design
More general SESAM concept: Download Ref. [62] (PDF, 394 KB) U. Keller, et al.
"Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) for femtosecond to nanosecond pulse generation in solid-state lasers"
IEEE J. Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics (JSTQE), vol. 2, pp. 435-453, 1996
First SESAM device: Download Ref. [19] (PDF, 502 KB) U. Keller, et al.
"Solid-state low-loss intracavity saturable absorber for Nd:YLF lasers: an antiresonant semiconductor Fabry-Perot saturable absorber"
Optics Lett., vol. 17, pp. 505-507, 1992
Invited Tutorial "SESAM modelocked solid-state lasers"
at the Ultrafast Optics Conference, in Davos, Switzerland March 2013
Download Lecture 1: Passive modelocked solid-state lasers (PDF, 12.8 MB)
Download Lecture 2: SESAM (PDF, 18.2 MB)
Invited Tutorial 2016: "Semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM)"
7th EPS-QEOD Europhoton Conference 2016, Vienna, Austria, Aug. 21-26, 2016
Download Slides (PDF, 12.4 MB)
SWIR and mid-IR SESAM
Novel 2-µm SESAMs with a full characterization technique: In 2021with the funding of an ERC advanced grant (Nr. 787097) we have built setups that can measure both the nonlinear reflectivity and time-resolved recovery dynamics with high accuracy. We have measured saturation fluences of around 4 μJ/cm2, modulation depths varying from 1% to 2.4%, low non-saturable losses (∼ 0.2%) and sufficiently fast recovery times (< 32 ps) Download [Ref 477] (PDF, 3.2 MB).
InGaSb SESAMs for an operation wavelength regime of 2 to 2.4 µm: Bandgap engineering, monolithic MBE growth, and operation parameters of GaSb-based SESAMs in the 2–2.4 μm range using type-I InGaSb quantum wells Download [Ref 495] (PDF, 11.3 MB)