Passively mode-locked GaInNAs disk laser operating at 1220 nm

We report an optically-pumped semiconductor disk laser passively mode-locked with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror. Both the absorber and the gain media were made of dilute nitride compound semiconductor, GaInNAs, which enables operation around 1.2 microm wavelengths. The laser generated 5 ps optical pulses with an average output power up to 275 mW. Our demonstration provides an attractive approach for efficiently generating red-wavelengths through external cavity frequency doubling.