Hysteresis and multiple pulsing in a semiconductor disk laser with a saturable absorber

Abstract

We report on bistable mode-locking in a semiconductor disk laser. The disk laser mode-locked with a semiconductor saturable absorber is investigated for different designs of the gain medium that allow the hysteresis loop to be controlled. Hysteresis formation in the pulsed regime of a semiconductor oscillator with saturable absorption and unsaturated gain is discussed qualitatively. The laser represents an attractive setup for generation and manipulation of dissipative solitons and observation of their interaction.