S. Collin et al., Optical sampling by ultra-fast high-contrast saturable absorber created byheavy ion irradiation, ELECTR LETT, 35(19), 1999, pp. 1667-1668
A 4ps high-sensitivity optical sampling scheme based on a fast GaAs saturab
le absorber created by heavy-ion irradiation is demonstrated. The intensity
-invariant saturable absorber permits high-level inhomogeneous pumping lead
ing to a high open/close ratio of 1000 and to a system sensitivity limited
by the level of saturable absorber spontaneous emission.