Effect of post-epitaxial-growth processing on the nonlinear response of saturable absorber.
The nonlinear response of an ion-irradiated saturable Bragg reflector, further modified by thermal annealing, has been studied. We demonstrate that the absorption recovery time and the effective saturation fluence dependent on the pulse duration can be tailored over a wide range after epitaxial growth by the proper combination of ion irradiation and subsequent annealing. Thermal treatment is also an efficient means for the reduction of the unbleachable losses and the stabilization of the absorber parameters.