Tunnel regenerated coupled multi-active-region large optical cavity laser with high quality beam

A novel coupled multi-active-region large optical cavity structure cascaded by tunnel junction is proposed to solve the problems of catastrophic optical damage (COD) of facet and large vertical divergence caused by the thin emitting area in the conventional laser diode. For the laser with three active regions, a slope efficiency as high as 1.49 W/A, a vertical divergence angle of 17.4°, and a threshold current density of 271 A/cm² are achieved. By optimizing the structure parameters, the beam quality is greatly improved, and the level of COD power increases more than two times compared with that of the conventional laser.     

大光腔小垂直发散角InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs半导体激光器

提出并实现了新型隧道再生耦合大光腔半导体激光器，近场光斑宽度达到1μm，较普通半导体激光器提高了一个数量级，有效地解决了普通半导体激光器由于发光面积狭窄而导致的端面灾变性毁坏和垂直发散角大的问题. 采用低压金属有机物化学气相沉积方法生长了以C和Si分别作为掺杂剂的AlGaAs隧道结、GaAs/InGaAs应变量子阱有源区和新型半导体激光器外延结构，并制备出器件，其垂直发散角为20°，阈值电流密度为277A/cm2，斜率效率在未镀膜时达到0.80W/A. 关键词： 半导体激光器 大光腔 隧道再生     

布拉格反射波导半导体激光器的研究

高功率半导体激光器在固体或光纤激光器泵浦、材料加工、医疗、传感、空间通讯和国防上有着极其重要的应用,但传统半导体激光器面临垂直发散角大、椭圆光斑的难题,限制了其直接应用。为了降低激光器的垂直发散角,本项目采用布拉格反射波导结构,利用光子带隙导引替代传统的全反射进行光场限制,优化设计了多种布拉格反射波导激光器结构,并制备了高性能的激光器器件。首先,采用传输矩阵理论和布洛赫波近似的方法计算了布拉格反射波导的模式色散关系,发现通过控制腔模光场分布,可实现不同远场的激光输出。接着,针对布拉格波导光子带隙导引机制,深入研究了四分之一波长布拉格反射波导激光器、单边布拉格反射波导激光器的光场特性,弄清了影响此类激光器远场的本质因素,最终设计并验证了一种布拉格反射波导双光束激光器,激光器在垂直方向可输出两个对称的、近圆形光束,单光束垂直和侧向发散角半高全宽分别低至7.2°和5.4°。另外,通过调控光缺陷层,使激光器工作在受抑隧穿光子带隙导引机制下,实现了超窄的单光束激光输出,激光器单管连续输出功率超过4.6 W,垂直发散角最低降至4.9°(半高全宽)和9.8°(95%功率)。这种高功率、窄的圆形光束输出可以大幅降低半导体激光器的应用成本,提高泵浦或光纤耦合效率,具有广阔的应用前景。     

Effect of focusing geometry on the continuous optical discharge properties

We studied the effect of the laser beam focusing geometry on the continuous optical discharge (COD) properties. We used a full two-dimensional radiative gas-dynamic model for the COD, maintained by a vertical CO₂ laser beam in free air atmosphere, in the Earth's gravitational field. The model takes into account all of the factors that are of importance in laser-sustained plasma processes, and uses realistic quasi optics to describe the laser radiation propagation. Results are presented for the optical discharge parameters as functions of applied laser power and degree (f-number) to which the laser beam is focused.     

Large spot size and low-divergence angle operation of 917-nm edge-emitting semiconductor laser with an asymmetric waveguide structure

GaInAs/AlGaAs comprehensive-strained three-quantum-well lasers with asymmetric waveguide are designed and optimized. With this design, the optical field in the transverse direction is extended, and a semiconductor laser with large spot is obtained. For a 300-μm cavity length and 100-μm aperture device under continuous wave (CW) operation, the measured vertical and horizontal far-field divergence angles are 12.2° and 3.0°, respectively. The slope efficiency is 0.44 W/A and the lasing wavelength is 917 nm.The equivalent transverse spot size is 3 μm for the fundamental transverse mode, which is a sufficiently large value for the purpose of coupling and manipulation of light.     

Two-dimensional field analysis of semiconductor lasers with small vertical beam divergence

Two-dimensional (2D) optical field distribution and the far-field patterns are analyzed for semiconductor lasers with small vertical beam divergence. The discrete spectral index method is used for the analysis and compared with other methods such as the effective index method. The discrete spectral index method is found to be much better in terms of accuracy and computation efficiency for the laser structures studied. Two laser structures with experimental counterparts are studied. The best beam aspect ratio ( <1.5) is achieved using the conventional ridge waveguide process. The calculated results compare very favorably with the experimental results. Simulations also reveal the guidelines for design of symmetric optical beam.     

High power AlGaInP laser diodes with zinc-diffused window mirror structure

The technology of zinc-diffusion to improve catastrophic optical damage (COD) threshold of compressively strained GaInP/A1GaInP quantum well laser diodes has been introduced. After zinc-diffusion, about 20-μm-long region at each facet of laser diode has been formed to serve as the window of the lasing light. As a result, the COD threshold has been significantly improved due to the enlargement of bandgap by the zinc-diffusion induced quantum well intermixing, compared with that of the conventional non-window structure. 40-mW continuous wave output power with the fundamental transverse mode has been realized under room temperature for the 3.5-μm-wide ridge waveguide diode. The operation current is 84 mA and the slope efficiency is 0.74 W/A at 40 mW. The lasing wavelength is 656 nm.     

激光引信中半导体激光器的准直及其测试

在理论上分析了单级单透镜光学系统对激光高斯光束发散角的影响。用单个平凸透镜对激光引信中的半导体激光器进行了准直，达到了激光引信光束准直的要求。通过CCD成像方法对准直后的光束发散角进行了测量，利用二阶矩算法计算出光束发散角。实验测得2个方向的发散角分别为θx=7.03°和θy=0.69°，验证了准直系统达到激光引信要求的θx＜10°和θy＜1°技术指标。     

A Novel Kind of Transverse Micro-Stack High-Power Diode Bars

Novel transverse micro-stack semiconductor laser bars are put forward to improve the output optical power of semiconductor laser bars at low injection current. More importantly, the novel laser bars have a coupled large optical cavity, which can overcome the problem of catastrophic optical damage and improve light beam quality due to the coherently coupled emitting along the transverse direction. The micro-stack tunnel regeneration tri-active region laser structure was grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition. For a weakly coupled uncoated device, the optical power exceeds 60 W under 50 A driving current and the slope efficiency reaches 1.55 W/A. Further experiments show that the perpendicular divergence of 23° is achieved from transverse strongly coupled devices.     

Fabrication of helical long-period fiber gratings by use of a CO2 laser

We present a method of helical long-period fiber grating (H-LPFG) fabrication by use of a CO2 laser for use as an optical torque sensor. A conventional optical fiber grating has periodic vertical index changes along its fiber axis, but a H-LPFG has a screw-type index modulation. The helical index modulation is obtained with the asymmetric index change caused by a single-side laser beam exposure. The H-LPFG shows peak shifts with codirectional or contradirectional torsion to the helix. Also, the polarization-dependent loss is measured to be relatively small compared with that of a conventional long-period fiber grating.     

Theoretical analyses on improved beam properties of GaSb-based 2.X-μm quantum-well diode lasers with no degradation in laser parameters

An asymmetric laser heterostructure is developed to improve the beam properties of GaSb-based diode lasers with no degradation in laser parameters.Employing the semivectorial finite difference method,the dependences of beam divergence and optical confinement factor on waveguide width and refractive index step are investigated theoretically.After carefully design,a particular asymmetric laser structure is proposed.Its beam divergence in the fast axis is reduced from 61° to 34° compared with that of the broad-waveguide structure.The optical confinement factor is approximately equal to 0.0362 and comparable to that of the conventional broad-waveguide structure.     

Demonstration of high efficiency third harmonic conversion of high power Nd-glass laser radiation

We report on efficient conversion from 1.054 μm to 0.35 μm by third harmonic generation in two Type II KDP crystals. Energy conversion efficiencies of up to 80% have been measured under conditions applicable to large glass laser systems. A new tripling scheme used for these experiments requires a minimum of optical components and is insensitive to exact crystal alignment and laser beam divergence. A convenient scaling law allows tripling optimization for many different laser conditions.     

Collimation Characteristics of Planar Microlens for Parallel Optical Interconnect

We evaluated the collimated beam quality of a planar microlens (PML) for parallel optical interconnect systems. It has been confirmed that the divergence beam from a single mode fiber was collimated by single PML and propagated with good beam quality by about 10 mm, which is the nominal length of microoptics components considered. The divergence beam from a vertical cavity surface emitting laser was collimated using stacked PML and the collimated beam width of 100 μm was obtained. The collimated beam profile was good enough for low loss beam interconnect in a micro-optical bench scheme.     

Graded index profiles and loss-induced single-mode characteristics in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with petal-shape holey structure

The 850-nm oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with petal-shape holey structures are presented.An area-weighted average refractive index model is given to analyse their effective index profiles,and the graded index distribution in the holey region is demonstrated.The index step between the optical aperture and the holey region is obtained which is related merely to the etching depth.Four types of holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with different parameters are fabricated as well as the conventional oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser.Compared with the conventional oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser without etched holes,the holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser possesses an improved beam quality due to its graded index distribution,but has a lower output power,higher threshold current and lower slope efficiency.With the hole number increased,the holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser can realize the single-mode operation throughout the entire current range,and reduces the beam divergence further.The loss mechanism is used to explain the single-mode characteristic,and the reduced beam divergence is attributed to the shallow etching.High coupling efficiency of 86% to a multi-mode fibre is achieved for the single-mode device in the experiment.     

980nm半导体激光器n型波导结构优化

为了提高980nm半导体激光器的输出功率并获得较小的远场发散角,在非对称波导结构的基础上设计了n型波导结构,即在n型波导中引入高折射率的内波导层。采用理论计算和SimLastip软件模拟对常规非对称波导结构和内波导结构进行了研究。利用分子束外延系统生长980nm内波导结构的外延材料,并制作了激光器。对于条宽为100μm、腔长为1000μm的器件,阈值电流为97mA,斜率效率为1.01W/A;当注入电流为500mA时,远场发散角为29°(垂直向)×8°(水平向),与模拟结果相符。理论计算和实验结果表明:较之于常规非对称波导结构,内波导结构可有效降低光场限制因子,提高输出功率,减小远场发散角。     

Effect of chromatic aberration on Gaussian beams: non-dispersive laser resonators

The propagation of a non-monochromatic (polychromatic) TEM₀₀ Gaussian beam in vacuum, its passage through a thin plate and its transformation by a thin lens are studied in the case of a non-dispersive laser resonator. The basic assumptions of the model are as follows: optical fields are stationary and plane-polarized, the paraxial wave equation is valid, an equivalent non-dispersive hemiconfocal resonator represents the lasing medium and its stable resonator, the laser emits in a single mode. It is also assumed that the plate and the lens have large transverse dimensions. Mathematical expressions, for beam radius, divergence, radius of curvature and beam parameter product, are obtained. A beam quality factor for polychromatic Gaussian beams is defined and its value calculated in each case of interest. It is proposed to simulate a dispersive laser resonator by a non-dispersive resonator complemented with a plate and/or a thin lens.     

大功率高光斑均匀性半导体激光复合光源

 为了获得具有更高输出功率和良好光斑分布均匀性的半导体激光光源,根据半导体激光优良的偏振特性,利用偏振分光棱镜将2束大功率激光束合成为一束更大功率的光束,通过一个发射系统投射。在光束合成前采用非球面光学系统对每个激光器慢轴方向的光束进行扩束,使其与快轴方向光束发散角基本一致。实验证明,此种半导体激光复合光源具有良好的光斑均匀性,其输出功率是2个半导体激光器输出功率之和,完全满足激光制导等军用系统对激光功率和光斑均匀性的要求。     

Analysis of Center Wavelength Shift of VCSEL Light in AWG for WDM PON Applications

Center wavelength shift of vertical cavity surface emitting laser light in arrayed waveguide gratings is verified with mathematical and experimental analysis.It is induced by the linearly increasing trend of optical power of vertical cavity surface emitting laser by bias current increase.It is retrieved effectively to the original center wavelength by simple correction method of compensation.This was done for application of vertical cavity surface emitting laser as a light source in optical line terminal of wavelength division multiplexing-passive optical network.     

Laser diode beam shaping by optical interference

We recently proposed a novel beam shaping technique that employs Lloyd’s mirror interference. In this study, we apply this technique to three commercial laser diodes: laser diodes used for optical pumping of solid-state lasers, for laser beam printers, and for laser displays. The elliptical output beams from these laser diodes could be transformed into nearly circular beams by inserting a mirror-polished GaAs substrate below the active layer of each laser diode and adjusting its height. The experimentally observed far-field patterns were predicted fairly well by numerical calculations based on Huygens’ integral. We confirmed that our beam shaping technique is applicable to laser diodes with various wavelengths and vertical beam divergence angles. We also describe the monolithic configuration of the beam shaping system, which can be fabricated by dry etching.     

Optimum design of aspheric collimation lenses for optical antenna system

Three kinds of aspheric collimation lenses for optical antenna have been design by optimization. The aspheric cylinder collimation lenses with aspheric surfaces (such as elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic marginal profiles) have been researched for the semiconductor laser beam with the characteristic of dot emitting source. Based on genetic algorithm and the optimization toolbox of MTLAB, the divergence angle has been optimized. The collimation divergence angle is less than 115 μrad has been measured by laser beam analyzer. This optimum design laser beam collimation lenses as a pre-collimation system can be used for optical antenna system. And it can be widely used in modern space laser communication.