Amplitude noise enhancement caused by nonlinear interaction of spontaneous emission field in laser diodes

The amplitude noise spectrum of the total laser output of a nearly single-mode laser diode is enhanced at low frequencies due to the nonlinear interaction between the spontaneous photons and the coherent laser field. This enhancement strongly depends on the spontaneous emission rate, resulting in a dependence of the amplitude noise spectral shape on the spontaneous emission rate. A linearized analytical model which predicts that the amplitude noise spectral shape is independent of the spontaneous emission rate is inadequate. The experimental data are consistent with a numerical simulation of the full nonlinear model.     

PbTe/CdTe量子阱光学性质的研究

PbTe/CdTe量子阱是一类新型异系低维结构材料,实验观察到具有强的室温中红外光致发光现象.建立了理论模型,计算了PbTe/CdTe量子阱的自发辐射率和光学增益.模型中量子阱分立能级的计算采用k·p包络波函数方法和有限深势阱近似,考虑了PbTe能带结构的各项异性和阱层中应变对能级的影响.计算了PbTe/CdTe量子阱自发辐射谱与带间弛豫和注入载流子浓度间的依赖关系,计算结果与实验观察到的光致发光峰相符合.自发辐射谱线峰位随着注入载流子浓度的增加而出现蓝移,当载流子浓度从2×1017cm-3增加到2.8×1018cm-3,基态发射峰从372 meV蓝移到397 meV,而第一激发态发射峰蓝移量为15 meV.上述蓝移现象是由载流子与载流子及载流子与声子间的相互作用引起的.与PbTe体材料相比.PbTe/CdTe量子阱结构具有更高的增益强度(提高近15倍)和更宽的增益区,因而该体系可能是实现室温连续工作的中红外激光器的理想材料.     

Energy and emission characteristics of superlattice quantum-cascade structures

Energy levels, wave functions, and matrix elements of optical dipole transitions have been numerically calculated for superlattice quantum-cascade structures. An expression for the gain has been obtained with regard to the complete set of energy levels in different models of spectral-line broadening. A universal relation between the gain and emission spectra for unipolar laser structures has been proposed. The effect of spectral broadening on the shape of emission spectra is estimated. The electroluminescence spectra are compared with the calculated spontaneous recombination spectra and good agreement between the results is shown.     

Influence of gain saturation and carrier dynamic models on the modulation response of quantum well lasers

The main problem for creation of optical communication systems is how quickly the light intensity can be changed under radiation from a laser diode. The modulation capability of lasers with separate confinement heterostructure depends strongly on carrier transport and gain saturation phenomena. Nonlinear gain saturation model in connection with dynamic behavior at high-frequency modulation is discussed and peculiarities of application of a new dynamic model with partial differential equation for the carrier transport in SCH region are shown.     

Amplification and wave mixing of induced and spontaneous emission in semiconductor laser amplifiers

We theoretically describe and experimentally investigate the spatio-spectral wave mixing of induced and spontaneous emission in large-area InGaAs-semiconductor laser amplifiers. The dynamic light-matter-coupling is described by a spatially resolved theory based on Maxwell–Bloch–Langevin equations, taking into account many-body-carrier interactions, energy transfer between the carrier and phonon systems and, in particular, the spatio-temporal interplay of stimulated and amplified spontaneous emission and the noise caused by spontaneous emission. Our numerical model reveals the fundamental physical processes which are responsible for the spectral power distribution of the amplified laser light and predicts the emission properties of high-power semiconductor laser amplifiers, such as emission spectra and input power–output power characteristics. Received:30October2002/Revisedversion:21November2002 / Published online: 12 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-711/6862-349, E-mail: Edeltraud.Gehrig@dlr.de RID="**" ID="**"Also at: Institute of Physics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 692, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland RID="***" ID="***"Present address: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Speyerer Strasse 6, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany RID="****" ID="****"Present address: Lightbit Corporation, 411 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA     

1150 nm High-Power Fiber Laser Oscillator Pumped by 976 nm Laser Diode

We present an all-fiber 1150 nm Yb-doped fiber laser oscillator pumped by a 976 nm laser diode. To suppress amplified spontaneous emission and avoid parasitic laser oscillation, we propose a long-length gain fiber and a high-reflectivity output fiber Bragg grating in the fiber laser oscillator. The 1150 nm band single-mode fiber laser with output power of 20.5 W is demonstrated at room temperature. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency ranges up to 51.6% at the maximum output. The central wavelength of the fiber laser oscillator is 1150.35 nm, and its 3 dB spectral width is 0.72 nm. No evidence of amplified spontaneous emission, residual pump light, or parasitic laser oscillation were observed in the experiments. The high-power 1150 nm fiber laser oscillator can be used as a pump source in the development of a 3 μm Ho-doped fiber laser.     

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.     

An improved transmission line laser model for multimode laser diodes incorporating thermal effects

An improved transmission line model to study the thermal effects in semiconductor laser diodes is reported in this paper. The temperature effects in the laser characteristics are obtained by incorporating temperature dependent gain and carrier density equations for the laser cavity. These primary factors are introduced in the regular transmission line laser model to estimate the static and dynamic characteristics of an 1.3μm InGaAsP double heterostructure laser diode. The results show good agreement with the experimental observation and solution of rate equations referred in the literature. The key feature of this model is that it provides the laser spectra at various temperatures. Based on the model, time dependent evolution of optical spectrum, temperature dependent optical output and frequency chirp are evaluated. Further the distribution of photon and electron density within the cavity is also determined.     

微型随机激光辐射特性的控制

为了对随机激光输出特性进行有效地控制,将随机介质纳米团簇植入到光子晶体中,利用有限时域差分法进行模拟,比较了团簇置于空气中和光子晶体中的输出特性.结果表明:当把团簇单纯地置于空气中,被激发后辐射光的能量会随时间慢慢减少,光谱呈自发辐射的特性;而当将这个团簇植入一光子晶体中,一些原始的自发辐射谱峰会逐渐消失,其中一个谱峰...     

微型随机激光辐射特性的控制

为了对随机激光输出特性进行有效地控制,将随机介质纳米团簇植入到光子晶体中,利用有限时域差分法进行模拟,比较了团簇置于空气中和光子晶体中的输出特性.结果表明:当把团簇单纯地置于空气中,被激发后辐射光的能量会随时间慢慢减少,光谱呈自发辐射的特性|而当将这个团簇植入一光子晶体中,一些原始的自发辐射谱峰会逐渐消失,其中一个谱峰会快速上升,最后成为光谱中唯一的一个能量最强的谱峰.因此如果一个无序的系统置于一个匹配的有序系统中,光能被有效地限制,自发辐射能被抑制,激发模式会被调制,系统的有效增益会被提高,激光阈值能被减少.     

Comparison of two kinds of active layers for high-power narrow-stripe distributed feedback laser diodes

Usually GaAs/AlGaAs is utilized as an active layer material in laser diodes operating in the spectral range of 800--850 nm. In this work, in addition to a traditional unstrained GaAs/AlGaAs distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode, a compressively strained InGaAlAs/AlGaAs DFB laser diode is numerically investigated in characteristic. The simulation results show that the compressively strained DFB laser diode has a lower transparency carrier density, higher gain, lower Auger recombination rate, and higher stimulated recombination rate, which lead to better a device performance, than the traditional unstrained GaAs/AlGaAs DFB laser diode.     

掺铒光纤自发辐射特性研究

本文对掺铒光纤的自发辐射特性进行了研究,分析了掺杂铒离子光纤的吸收截面、辐射截面、自发辐射谱、净增益系数等的特性,以及在掺铒光纤中,泵浦功率、自发辐射功率、光纤长度、自发辐射谱之间的关系,并用单色仪和波长为1.48um的InGaAsP半导体激光器测试了国产掺铒光纤的吸收谱和它的自发辐射谱。     

由半导体激光器端面输出谱确定自发辐射谱

利用射线法和平均载流子分布近似，从理论上预言了用阈值以下半导体激光器的端面输出谱来确定自发辐射谱的可能性。在此基础上，通过实验测得的阈值以下半导体激光器的端面输出谱确定了自发辐射谱，并且对自发辐射谱和增益谱进行了比较和分析。     

Fine spectroscopy of the dynamics of heterolaser radiation in the presence of an ultrasonic strain

This paper reports on the experimental data on the dynamics (in real time) of the emission spectra of InGaAsP/InP heterolasers, including those in the presence of an alternating strain. A computational model is proposed for the fine dynamic spectral analysis. A comparative investigation of the methods used for the fine analysis of the emission spectra of heterolasers is performed, and the advantages of the dynamic method for studying the ultrasonic action on the emission spectra of laser heterostructures are demonstrated.     

Optical properties of ultra-thin InN layer embedded in InGaN matrix for light emitters

We theoretically investigate the optical properties of an ultra-thin InN layer embedded in InGaN matrix for light emitters. The peak emission wavelength extends from ultraviolet (374 nm) to green (536 nm) with InN quantum well thickness increasing from 1 monolayer to 2 monolayers, while the overlap of electron-hole wave function remains at a high level (larger than 90%). Increase of In content in InGaN matrix provides a better approach to longer wavelength emission, which only reduces the spontaneous emission rate slightly compared with the case of increasing In content of the conventional InGaN quantum well. Also, the transparency carrier density derived from gain spectrum is of the same order as that in the conventional blue laser diode. Our study provides skillful design on the development of novel structure InN-based light emitting diodes as well as laser diodes.     

Narrow-wavelength-spread spectral combining laser with a reflector for a double pass with a single grating

We proposed a novel wavelength-spread compression technique for spectral beam combining of a diode laser array. A reflector, which is parallel to the grating, is introduced to achieve a double pass with a single grating.This facilitated the reduction of the wavelength spread by half and doubled the number of combined elements in the gain range of the diode laser. We achieved a power of 26.1 W under continuous wave operation using a19 element single bar with a wavelength spread of 6.3 nm, which is nearly half of the original wavelength spread of 14.2 nm, demonstrating the double-compressed spectrum capability of this structure. The spectral beam combining efficiency was 63.7%. The grating efficiency and reflector reflectance were both over 95%; hence, the efficiency loss of the double-pass grating with a reflector is acceptable. In contrast to double-grating methods,the proposed method introduces a reflector that efficiently uses the single grating and shows significant potential for a more efficient spectral beam combining of diode laser arrays.     

组合式钕玻璃片状激光放大器增益性能的动态模拟

用随时间变化的氙灯辐射光谱模型,建立了组合式钕玻璃片状激光放大器动态增益特性的模拟程序,实现了从氙灯放电到引出激光的全过程动态模拟,可用于片状激光放大器的优化设计.研究了:1)放大器在不同的抽运条件下水平方向的增益均匀性,当氙灯爆炸系数比较高时,自发辐射放大优先使片的边缘产生消抽运作用,增益分布变得不均匀,通光口径的中央处增益较大;2)片厚度和掺杂浓度对增益性能的影响,在相同的抽运条件下,储能通量由片厚度与掺杂浓度的乘积决定,给出了储能通量和小信号增益随片厚度与掺杂浓度的乘积的变化关系 关键词： 钕玻璃激光放大器 储能密度 增益特性     

Investigation of the intracavity frequency doubling of a gain-switched InGaAs/GaAs pulsed diode laser

A mathematical model describing the dynamic emission of the intracavity frequency doubling (IFD) of a gain-switched two-section InGaAs/GaAs diode laser has been presented. One section is electrically pumped to provide gain, while the second section is unpumped (reverse biased) to provide a saturable absorber. The three-dimensional physical problem is reduced to one-dimensional model using adiabatic approximation, which allows the separation of the wavefunction. The suggested model in this paper allows studying the impact of the variations of the input InGaAs/GaAs/KTP diode laser parameters on the output pulsation characteristics. The proposed mathematical model is solved numerically using fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The numerical calculations reflect the influence of the variation of the applied gain current and saturable bias current on the output laser pulse characteristics. The numerical results show good consistency with the available experimental data in references.     

Improving the characteristics of the modulation response for fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot lasers by optimizing model parameters

A unified and comprehensive study on the small-signal intensity and frequency modulation characteristics of a fiber Bragg grating Fabry–Perot (FBG–FP) laser are numerically investigated. The effect of injection current, temperature, external optical feedback (OFB), nonlinear gain compression factor, fiber grating (FG) parameters and spontaneous emission factor on modulation response characteristics are presented. The rate equations of the laser model are presented in the form that the effect of temperature (T) and external optical feedback (OFB) are included. The temperature dependence (TD) of laser response is calculated according to the TD of laser cavity parameters instead of directly using the well-known Parkove equation. It is shown that the optimum external fiber length (L_ext) is 3.1 cm and the optimum range of working temperature for FGFP laser is within ±2 °C from the FBG reference temperature (T_o). Also, the antireflection (AR) coating reflectivity and the linewidth enhancement factor have no significant effect on the modulation spectra. It is also show that modulation response is extremely sensitive to the OFB level, high injection current and gain compression factor. The study indicates clearly that good dynamic characteristic can be obtained by system parameters optimization.     

Investigation of nonequilibrium hydroxyl emission spectra

Ultraviolet nonequilibrium OH emission spectra in flames are measured and analyzed. Spectra of nonequilibrium coefficients are recorded for an optically thin jet, and spectral absorption coefficients and electronic absorption band intensities are determined. Based on the developed mathematical radiative transfer model in a nonequilibrium radiating media, the OH contribution to radiative jet cooling is estimated, and practical applications of the nonequilibrium emission process to the development of optoelectronic systems of observation over aero carriers are considered.