We present a novel Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VECSEL) cavity design which makes use of multiple interactions with the gain region under different angles of incidence in a single round trip. This design allows for optimization of the net, round-trip Group Delay Dispersion (GDD) by shifting the GDD of the gain via cavity fold angle while still maintaining the high gain of resonant structures. The effectiveness of this scheme is demonstrated with femtosecond-regime pulses from a resonant structure and record pulse energies for the VECSEL gain medium. In addition, we show that the interference pattern of the intracavity mode within the active region, resulting from the double-angle multifold, is advantageous for operating the laser in CW on multiple wavelengths simultaneously. Power, noise, and mode competition characterization is presented.

Date Published: 22 February 2017
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 10087, Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VECSELs) VII, 100870B (22 February 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2250579

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10087:
Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VECSELs) VII
Michael Jetter, Editor(s)