1 W tunable near diffraction limited light from a broad area laser diode in an external cavity with a line width of 1.7 MHz

A novel unstable external cavity for a broad area laser diode is presented. The cavity is based on a V-shaped setup that improves the slow axis beam quality by coupling the internal modes of a gain guided laser diode. The novelty here is the compact unstable resonator design without lenses in direction of the slow axis. For frequency stabilisation and to narrow the line width of the laser diode emission a diffraction grating in a Littrow configuration is used. With this setup up to 1 W of near diffraction limited light with a beam quality of M² ? 1.3 and a line width of 1.7 MHz could be achieved. The external cavity laser was tunable over a range of 35 nm (FWHM) around the center wavelength of 976 nm.     

新型光泵浦垂直外腔面发射半导体激光器

用量子阱技术生长的半导体材料作激光增益介质,AlGaAs/GaAs对做布喇格反射镜,并以简单的平凹腔做谐振腔,半导体激光器作泵浦源,制作出了光泵垂直外腔面发射半导体激光器.在抽运功率1.5 W时,得到了中心波长1005 nm、最大输出功率40 mW的激光,光－光转换效率2.7%.     

高效频率转换下双波长外腔共振和频技术研究

基于外腔的高效频率转换, 尤其是当系统运行在抽运不消耗近似机理下, 信号光可实现大于90%的转换, 因此无法通过信号光直接获得其到腔模频率锁定的误差信号. 本文通过对信号光调制、和频光解调的方法获得了该误差信号, 实现了双波长激光到外腔腔模的级联锁定. 实验中外部环形腔将1.3 W的1064 nm抽运光放大到约14.3 W. 当1583 nm信号光从10 μW变化到50 mW, 其到636 nm和频光的转化效率约为73%; 当从50 mW变化到295 mW时, 转换效率呈线性降低到60%, 最终获得了440 mW的636 nm激光.     

850 nm centered wavelength-swept laser based on a wavelength selection galvo filter

A wavelength-swept laser is constructed using a free space external cavity configuration coupled with a fiberbased ring cavity at the 850 nm region. The external cavity filter employs a galvo-mirror scanner with a diffraction grating for wavelength selection. The filter is connected to a ring cavity through an optical circulator.The ring cavity contains a broadband semiconductor optical amplifier with a high optical output. The performance of this laser is demonstrated with broad bandwidths and narrow linewidths. The 3 dB linewidth and the bandwidth of this source are 0.05 nm(~20 GHz) and 48 nm, respectively. The maximum output power is 26 m W at 160 m A current.     

Interference-filter-stabilized external-cavity diode lasers

We have developed external cavity diode lasers, where the wavelength selection is assured by a low loss interference filter instead of the common diffraction grating. The filter allows a linear cavity design reducing the sensitivity of the wavelength and the external cavity feedback against misalignment. By separating the feedback and wavelength selection functions, both can be optimized independently leading to an increased tunability of the laser. The design is employed for the generation of laser light at 698, 780 and 852 nm. Its characteristics make it a well suited candidate for space-born lasers.     

Intracavity frequency-doubled green vertical external cavity surface emitting laser

An intracavity frequency-doubled vertical external cavity surface emitting laser (VECSEL) with green light is demonstrated. The fundamental frequency laser cavity consists of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) of the gain chip and an external mirror. A 12-mW frequency-doubled output has been reached at 540 nm with a nonlinear crystal LBO when the fundamental frequency output is 44 mW at 1080 nm. The frequency doubling efficiency is about 30%.     

电流调谐光纤光栅外腔分布布拉格反射激光器

报道一种新颖的波长可调谐光纤光栅外腔分布拉格反射激光器。把经过金属管封装的光纤面布拉格光栅作为激光二极管的外腔反射镜,得到的单模激光输出不仅线宽窄,边模抑制比高,而且,调节流过金属管的电流,可在5nm范围内的6个不同波长间转换。     

Narrow-linewidth, pump-enhanced singly-resonant parametric oscillator pumped at 532 nm

3 is demonstrated. The pump wave is provided by a frequency-doubled miniature Nd:YAG ring laser and is resonantly enhanced in the SRO cavity, resulting in an external threshold of 200 mW. Stable single-frequency emission in the 1000–1135 nm range has been obtained with 2 GHz continuous tunability and signal/idler linewidths <160 kHz. Received: 25 August 1997     

A Single Mode Fibre Laser by Applying Self-Injection Locking with a DFB Structure

We report a novel single-frequency fibre ring laser using self-injection locking with a distributed-feedback （DFB） fibre laser at 1550nm. The operating wavelength is controlled by a saturable absorber and a DFB fibre laser in the ring cavity, the saturable absorber acts as a narrow band-pass filter. In the primary experiment, the laser output exceeds 100mW with the linewidth less than 2kHz. The laser is stable, and no mode-hopping is observed within eight hours. Compared with other cavity designs using spatial hole-burning, our laser shows high controllability.     

Intra-cavity spectroscopy with diode lasers

A multi-mode diode laser with an external cavity is studied experimentally and theoretically for its application to intra-cavity spectroscopy. One facet of a typical Ga_0.89Al_0.11As laser diode was antireflection-coated by deposition of HfO₂ such that 10^–3 residual reflectivity was left over. This diode was placed in an external optical cavity. The emission spectrum of this diode laser is highly sensitive to any frequency-dependent loss in the cavity, and the detectivity of such a loss grows with the pump rate. Even close to threshold, the absorption at 780 nm of Rb atoms with a density of 5×10¹⁰ cm^–3 has been detected. An adequate model for diode lasers based on rate equations and including frequency-dependent gain saturation is developed and applied to the calculations of output spectra. The sensitivity of these spectra to intra-cavity absorption is determined by the overall cavity loss — which is rather high — and the fraction of spontaneous emission in the total emission, in contrast with dye lasers where it is limited by nonlinear mode coupling. Various criteria for the sensitivity are suggested. The smallest detectable absorption with a perfectly antireflection-coated laser is 10^–6 cm^–1. Improvement of the characteristics of the laser diode would increase the sensitivity.     

双光纤光栅外腔半导体激光器相干失效研究

根据双光纤Bragg光栅(FBG)外腔半导体激光器相干失效的物理过程, 运用速率方程和双FBG耦合模理论, 分析了双FBG外腔半导体激光器相干失效产生和控制的条件, 提出了实现和控制双FBG外腔半导体激光器相干失效多模稳定工作的方法. 双FBG外腔半导体激光器在相干失效下具有多模的稳定工作状态, 相干失效长度缩短, 相干失效长度内光谱稳定. 实验测量结果表明, 外腔反射率为3%时, 从非相干失效状态到相干失效状态, 半峰值全宽度从0.5 nm突然展宽到0.9 nm. 在相干失效状态下, 功率稳定, 边模抑制比大于45 dB, 在0℃–70℃工作温度范围内峰值波长漂移小于0.5 nm, 最小相干失效长度小于0.5 m. 双FBG外腔半导体激光器相干失效的应用对提高光纤放大器和光纤激光器的性能具有重要意义. 关键词： 非线性 半导体激光器 双光纤Bragg光栅 相干失效     

Tunable single-mode Fabry-Perot laser diode using a built-in external cavity and its modulation characteristics

A tunable single-mode laser is obtained by using a weakly coupled cavity structure involved in a coaxially packaged Fabry-Perot laser diode. The cleaved end facet of the coupling fiber becomes an optical reflector and forms an external cavity with a laser facet. The single-mode oscillation condition is controlled and stabilized by tuning the operating temperature. The tuning range is about 10 nm with the side-mode suppression ratio of more than 27 dB when the temperature changes from 11.5 degrees C to 25 degrees C. Direct modulation characteristics were investigated, and our results show that a shorter external cavity can bear deeper modulation depth.     

Noncascading THz-wave parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by mode-locked picosecond Ti:sapphire laser in doubly-resonant external cavity

A noncascading terahertz (THz) wave parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by a mode-locked picosecond Ti:sapphire laser whose average power was less than 1 W was demonstrated with a noncollinear phase-matching MgO:LiNbO₃ crystal in an external enhancement cavity doubly resonant for both pump (780 nm) and signal (781-784 nm) waves. In the external cavity, in which the pump wave enhanced so as to reduce the pumping threshold of parametric processes, the signal wave could also resonate and thus be enhanced simultaneously, resulting in a THz wave output at approximately 0.9 THz as the idler wave. The novel dual enhancement of pump and signal waves reduced the threshold pumping intensity to approximately 50 MW/cm², which was much lower than that of a conventional externally pumped THz wave parametric oscillator with a crystal.     

A broadband external cavity tunable InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser by utilizing only the ground state emission

A broadband external cavity tunable laser is realized by using a broad-emitting spectral InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) gain device. A tuning range of 69 nm with a central wavelength of 1056 nm, is achieved at a bias of 1.25 kA/cm2 only by utilizing the light emission from the ground state of QDs. This large tunable range only covers the QD ground-state emission and is related to the inhomogeneous size distribution of QDs. No excited state contributes to the tuning bandwidth. The application of the QD gain device to the external cavity tunable laser shows its immense potential in broadening the tuning bandwidth. By the external cavity feedback, the threshold current density can be reduced remarkably compared with the free-running QD gain device.     

光纤光栅外腔半导体激光器的高频调制特性

报道了光纤光栅外腔激光器瞬态特性的理论分析,引入了一个适用于外腔情况的等效光子寿命,模拟计算表明,要获得高于2．5GHz的调制速率,光纤光栅外腔的长度必须短于4cm范围,对所研制的光纤光栅外腔激光器进行了高频调制测量,得到了在1GHz下的单模激光输出,边模抑制比在40dB以上,3dB动态线宽为0．1nm左右,20dB动态线宽为0．3nm。     

闪耀光栅外腔反馈压窄半导体激光器线宽技术的研究

在讨论半导体激光线宽压窄理论的基础上,利用闪耀光栅作为外部反馈元件,介绍了由中心波长为949.6nm、原始线宽为1.2THz的单管半导体激光器构成的反馈外腔,它能够很好的改善半导体激光器的性能。实验得到了中心波长稳定的、单纵模的高质量激光输出,边模抑制比大于30dB,线宽优于1.2MHz(Δλ<3.6×10-6nm)。实验证实了强反馈能够很好地改善外腔半导体激光器的动态特性。     

Fast Fourier transform analysis in cavity ring-down spectroscopy: application to an optical detector for atmospheric NO2

A fast Fourier transform (FFT) method for analysis of ring-down decays from a cavity ring-down (CRD) spectrometer has been tested and compared with alternative fitting methods. The ring-down times derived from the FFT method are obtained with a precision close to that of the Levenberg–Marquardt non-linear least-squares method, but the fitting algorithm is ~100 times faster, allowing real-time fitting of individual ring-down traces on a personal computer. Advantages of the FFT method are discussed, and the method is demonstrated for the measurement of NO₂ partial pressures equivalent to mixing ratios of 150 pptv and above in laboratory air, using a CRD spectrometer based on an external cavity diode laser operating at wavelengths around 410 nm. The absorption by NO₂ is distinguished from other cavity losses either by using synthetic (zero) air reference samples, or by diverting the sampled laboratory airflow through an NO₂ chemical scrubber consisting of hydroxyapatite on a TiO₂ substrate. Typical mixing ratios of NO₂ in the laboratory air are ~25 ppbv.     

Nanometer-scale displacement sensing using self-mixing interferometry with a correlation-based signal processing technique

A self-mixing interferometer is proposed to measure nanometre-scale optical path length changes in the interferometer’s external cavity. As light source, the developed technique uses a blue emitting GaN laser diode. An external reflector, a silicon mirror, driven by a piezo nanopositioner is used to produce an interference signal which is detected with the monitor photodiode of the laser diode. Changing the optical path length of the external cavity introduces a phase difference to the interference signal. This phase difference is detected using a signal processing algorithm based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient and cubic spline interpolation techniques. The results show that the average deviation between the measured and actual displacements of the silicon mirror is 3.1 nm in the 0–110 nm displacement range. Moreover, the measured displacements follow linearly the actual displacement of the silicon mirror. Finally, the paper considers the effects produced by the temperature and current stability of the laser diode as well as dispersion effects in the external cavity of the interferometer. These reduce the sensor’s measurement accuracy especially in long-term measurements.     

All-diode-laser cooling of single Ca+ ions

+ ions. The Ca⁺ ions are trapped in a miniature rf Paul trap and irradiated by light from a frequency-doubled diode laser at 397 nm and by light from a diode laser at 866 nm. We are able to cool a single ion and observe its fluorescence continuously with the laser diode locked to the external frequency-doubling cavity. Quantum jumps in the fluorescence light of a single ion and of a small cloud of five ions have been induced by driving the “clock” transition at 729 nm. We were able to resolve the influence of the micromotion on the excitation spectrum of the small ion cloud. Received: 10 July 1997/Revised version: 17 November 1997     

532 nm激光泵浦硝酸钡晶体产生外腔拉曼激光

 由于硝酸钡晶体具有很强的对称振动(频率1 047 cm^-1)和较高的拉曼增益,可以用来产生受激拉曼激光。采用单端泵浦的外置拉曼振荡腔与双棱镜分光装置进行了硝酸钡晶体拉曼激光实验,泵浦源为倍频Nd: YAG的532 nm激光,硝酸钡晶体通过水溶液降温法生长,尺寸为10 mm×10 mm×48 mm,采用特殊镀膜的腔镜对各阶斯托克斯光进行优化选择。在泵浦源达到65 mJ时,获得21 mJ一阶斯托克斯光,输出波长为563 nm,以及16 mJ的二阶斯托克斯光,输出波长为599 nm,受激拉曼散射SRS最大的整体转换效率（包含一阶、二阶斯托克斯光之和）为56.3%。