Femtosecond Alexandrite laser passively mode-locked by an InP/InGaP quantum-dot saturable absorber

An Alexandrite laser passively mode-locked using an InP/InGaP quantum-dot semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (QD-SESAM) was demonstrated. The laser was pumped at 532 nm and generated pulses as short as 380 fs at 775 nm with an average output power of 295 mW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on a passively mode-locked femtosecond Alexandrite laser using a SESAM in general and a QD-SESAM in particular.