Many applications need femtosecond and picosecond pulses from laser sources that should be not only powerful and efficient but also compact and reliable. These requirements can be fulfilled by all-solid-state lasers. Passive modelocking with semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) is a versatile technique for short pulse generation. Here we report on recent achievements in this field. In particular we present a novel semiconductor device for dispersion compensation and various improved diode-pumped passively modelocked lasers. Also we show which laser parameters determine the stability of a passively modelocked lasers against Q-switching instabilities.
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