Abstract: This paper presents experimental results of using a diamond shaped semiconductor optical amplifier as the optical gain element in a high power external cavity semiconductor laser. An average output power of 740 mW is demonstrated in continuous wave operation while 400 mW of average power is obtained in both passive and hybrid modelocked operation, with subsequent optical amplification in an identical semiconductor optical amplifier. The modelocked laser operates at a repetition rate of 1.062 GHz. Optical pulses are generated with a temporal duration of 5 psec, which implies a pulse energy of 377 pJ, and a peak power of 60 watts. Further reduction of the optical pulsewidth to 1.3 psec is also achieved by using dispersion compensation techniques. These results show the promise of novel semiconductor optical amplifier devices for use as gain elements in external cavity semiconductor lasers. The generated output pulse characteristics from modelocked operation is sufficient for use in novel 3-dimensional data storage applications, and in large scale commercial printing and marking applications. !11
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