Amplified luminescence and threshold current temperature dependencies of ZnSe and GaN laser diodes

Using a transfer equation approach, it is shown that the cavity-trapped amplified luminescence (AL) flux densities S integrated over the frequency and cavity length at the threshold of ZnSe, zinc-blende and wurtzite GaN laser diodes (LDs) with stripe-geometry bulk active layers reach (3.5–9)×10⁴ MW/m² within the temperature range 200–400 K. At these values of S, the nonlinear optical effects induced by AL can be observed. The AL induced recombination can enhance the threshold current density of the short wavelength LDs by two or even three times. Received: 7 January 2002 / Revised version: 11 April 2002 / Published online: 8 August 2002     

Bleaching effect in passive regions of powerful 1.02 μm InGaAs/AlGaAs DQW laser diodes with ridged waveguide structure

It has been shown that the cavity trapped amplified luminescence (CTAL) flux formed within the active region of a powerful 1.02 μm InGaAs/AlGaAs DQW laser diode (LD) with a ridged waveguide structure, can cause the bleaching of passive areas leading to abrupt hysteresis-type changes in the light–current and spectral characteristics. The post-threshold rise of the CTAL flux within the non-lasing parts of the active region is most likely to play significant role in the nonlinear optical phenomena observed in investigated LDs. The frequency-integrated CTAL flux density at which bleaching takes place is equal to 6.5×10⁸ W/m². The hysteresis-type loop can be removed through the LD “run-in” procedure or high-temperature annealing of the LD chip in an hydrogen atmosphere. PACS 42.55.Px; 42.70.Hj     

Thermal analysis of InP-based quantum cascade lasers for efficient heat dissipation

We have theoretically investigated the thermal characteristics of double-channel ridge–waveguide InGaAs/InAlAs/InP quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) using a two-dimensional heat dissipation model. The temperature distribution, heat flow, and thermal conductance (G _th) of QCLs were obtained through the thermal simulation. A thick electroplated Au around the laser ridges helps to improve the heat dissipation from devices, being good enough to substitute the buried heterostructure (BH) by InP regrowth for epilayer-up bonded lasers. The effects of the device geometry (i.e., ridge width and cavity length) on the G _th of QCLs were investigated. With 5 μm thick electroplated Au, the G _th is increased with the decrease of ridge width, indicating an improvement from G _th=177 W/K⋅cm² at W=40 μm to G _th=301 W/K⋅cm² at W=9 μm for 2 mm long lasers. For the 9 μm×2 mm epilayer-down bonded laser with 5 μm thick electroplated Au, the use of InP contact layer leads to a further improvement of 13% in G _th, and it was totally raised by 45% corresponding to 436 W/K⋅cm² compared to the epilayer-up bonded laser with InGaAs contact layer. It is found that the epilayer-down bonded 9 μm wide BH laser with InP contact layer leads to the highest G _th=449 W/K⋅cm². The theoretical results were also compared with available obtained experimentally data.     

Nonlinear transformation of a spectrum of femtosecond laser pulses in a gas-filled microcapillary

Features of light pulse propagation and nonlinear optical transformation of the spectrum generated by titanium-sapphire laser pulses (τ_0.5 = 27 fs, λ₀ = 790 nm) have been studied experimentally in a 50-cm cylindrical hollow waveguide (microcapillary with 280-μm diameter core) filled with gaseous molecular nitrogen and helium. Stable guided propagation of light pulses with an intensity of ~1.5⋅10¹⁴ W/cm² in the fundamental EH₁₁ mode of the gas-filled capillary has been demonstrated. Exact focusing of the laser light made it possible to obtain rather high relative (≥95%) and absolute (~60%) energy transmission efficiencies for the pulses at gas pressures equal to or lower than 760 Torr. A method to determine the nonlinear phase shift of the pulses has been proposed. Values of the nonlinear refractive index n₂ ≈ 4.5⋅10^–23 cm²/(W⋅Torr) (N₂) and n₂ ≈ 2.8⋅10^–23 cm²/(W⋅Torr) (He) have been found. A short-wavelength shift in addition to the Kerr nonlinearity has been shown to be contributed by the generated electron plasma at high pulse intensities (≥10¹⁴ W/cm²).     

Growth, polarized spectral properties, and 1.5–1.6 μm laser operation of Er:Yb:Sr3Gd2(BO3)4 crystal

An Er:Yb:Sr₃Gd₂(BO₃)₄ crystal was grown by the Czochralski method. The polarized spectral properties of the crystal were investigated, including the polarized absorption and fluorescence spectra and fluorescence decay. The fluorescence quantum efficiency of the upper laser level ⁴I_13/2 of Er³⁺ ions and the efficiency of the energy transfer from Yb³⁺ to Er³⁺ ions were calculated. End-pumped by a diode laser at 970 nm in a hemispherical cavity, a 1.6 W quasi-cw laser at 1.5–1.6 μm with a slope efficiency of 18% and an absorbed pump threshold of 5.9 W was achieved in a 1.8-mm-thick Z-cut Er:Yb:Sr₃Gd₂(BO₃)₄ crystal. This crystal has a flat and broad gain curve at 1.5–1.6 μm and so is also a potential gain medium for tunable and short pulse lasers.     

Limitations of an optically pumped rubidium laser imposed by atom recycle rate

A rubidium laser pumped on the 5²S_1/2–5²P_3/2 D₂ transition by a pulsed dye laser at pump intensities exceeding 3.5 MW/cm² (>1000 times threshold) has been demonstrated. Output energies as high as 12 μJ/pulse are limited by the rate for collision relaxation of the pumped ²P_3/2 state to the upper laser ²P_1/2 state. More than 250 photons are available for every rubidium atom in the pumped volume during each pulse. For modest alkali atom and ethane spin–orbit relaxer concentrations, the gain medium can only process about 50 photons/atom during the 2–8 ns pump pulse. At 110°C and 550 Torr of ethane, the system is bottlenecked in the ²P_3/2 state and all of the incident photons cannot be absorbed. The output energy is linearly dependent on pump pulse duration for a given pump energy. The highly saturated pump limit of the recently developed three-level model for diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs) is developed. The system efficiency based on absorbed photons approaches 36% even for these extreme pump conditions.     

CW mode locked Nd:YVO4 laser pumped by 20-W laser diode bar

The efficient cw mode locking (cw-ML) regime was demonstrated in Nd:YVO₄ laser by means of saturable absorber mirror (SAM). The 0.3-at.% Nd³⁺ doped 10-mm-long YVO₄ crystal end pumped by 20-W diode module with a beam shaper was applied as a gain medium located in the close vicinity to the rear flat mirror of the first arm of Z-type resonator of 316 cm total length with two curved mirrors of 100-cm curvature radii. The SAM of 2%-saturable absorptance and saturation fluence of 50 μJ/cm² was mounted at the opposite end of a resonator. The developed “dynamically stable” cavity design mitigates detrimental role of thermal aberration in gain medium, enforcing clean perfect mode locking even for the highest pump densities. The cw-ML pulses with 47.5 MHz repetition rate and pulse durations in the range of 15–20 ps were observed for a wide range of pump powers and output coupler losses. In the best case, for 32% of output coupler transmission, up to 6.2 W of average power with near 35% slope efficiency was achieved. The thresholds for Q-switched ML, cw-ML regimes were 2.67 W and 6.13 W of pump power, respectively. For the maximum pump power of 20 W we obtained 133 nJ of pulse energy with 16-ps pulse duration, resulting in a peak power higher than 8 kW. The threshold energy density at SAM giving the QML regime was estimated to be about 30 μJ/cm², threshold of cw-ML regime was 220 μJ/cm².     

Design of an Optical Fiber Device for Pumping a Double-Clad Fiber Laser with a Laser Diode Bar

Pumping of a rare-earth-doped double-clad fiber laser with a GaAIAs laser diode bar requires imaging the near field output of a 1 cm long one-dimensional linear array of tens of multi-mode laser diode sources onto a two-dimensional oblong cross section approximately matching the fiber’s first cladding shape. This work describes the design and preliminary implementation of a device (here called a high brightness geometric transformer) that achieves this transformation with minimum brightness loss. This is done by imaging the laser diode bar near field using a fast cylindrical micro-lens onto a linear array of N (≈10) soft-glass, thin-clad rectangular fibers; in turn, the fibers’ output ends are arranged to form a stack that matches the required first cladding shape. For a typical 20W CW, laser diode bar with brightness of 25 mW·μm²·sr^-1, the geometric transformer output brightness is 0.6 mW·μm^-2·sr⁻¹, i.e., there is a ·40 intermediate loss of brightness. If the output of the geometric transformer is used to pump a Nd-doped double-clad fiber laser, an overall brightness gain of ·340 can be achieved.Presented at the International Commission of Optics Topical Meeting, Kyoto, 1994.     

Diode-pumped monolithic Er3+:Yb3+:YAl3(BO3)4 micro-laser at 1.6 μm

Efficient eye-safe 1.6 μm monolithic laser was realized in a c-cut, 0.7-mm-thick Er³⁺:Yb³⁺:YAl₃(BO₃)₄ microchip end-pumped by a quasi-continuous-wave 970 nm diode laser. At incident pump peak power of 20.4 W, a maximum output peak power of 2.6 W with a slope efficiency of 19% was obtained when the waist radius of pump laser beam was 220 μm. The spectra and profiles of output beam of the Er³⁺:Yb³⁺:YAl₃(BO₃)₄ monolithic laser were measured. The influences of the waist radius of pump laser beam on the slope efficiency and threshold of the monolithic laser were also investigated.     

Linearly-polarized Tm-doped double-clad fiber laser

We report a linearly polarized Tm doped fiber laser. The fiber laser was set up by using a piece of polarization maintaining Tm doped double clad fiber of 5 m length as gain medium and a polarization beam splitter as a polarization selector. The fiber laser was pumped by a fiber pigtailed laser diode working at 790 nm with a maximum output power of 90 W. The linearly polarized Tm laser operated at wavelength around 2030 nm. A maximum output power up to 21.9 W was achieved when the pump power was 63.27 W with a threshold of 11.92 W, a slope efficiency of about 43.7%, and a polarization extinction ratio of 92.7% (11.37 dB). In addition to the blue fluorescence, we also observed the violet fluorescence under high pump power level. The up-conversion fluorescence was considered to be attributed to the ¹ G ₄ → ³ H ₆, and ¹ D ₂ → ³ F ₄ transitions of Tm ions, respectively.     

A comprehensive study of Nd:YAG, Nd:YAlO3, Nd:YVO4 and Nd:YGdVO4 lasers operating at wavelengths of 0.9 and 1.3 μm. Part 1: cw-operation

This paper reports on efficient generation of cw laser radiation at 0.9 and 1.3 μm in different neodymium doped laser hosts. The thermal, mechanical and optical properties as well as the laser performance of Nd:YAG, Nd:YAlO₃, Nd:YVO₄ and Nd:GdVO₄ are studied in numerical simulations as well as in experimental investigations. For example an output power of more than 4.0 W is generated in Nd:YVO₄ at the 914 nm ⁴F_3/2→⁴I_9/2 transition using a pump power of 19 W. In Nd:GdVO₄ more than 6.0 W are obtained at the 1342 nm ⁴F_3/2→⁴I_13/2 laser transition by using a pump power of 19.3 W. The spatial beam quality of both lasers is diffraction limited with an M² value of less than 1.1. PACS  42.70.Hj; 42.55.Xi; 42.60.Pk     

Synthesis of LaB6 micro/nano structures using picosecond (Nd:YAG) laser and its field emission investigations

Micro/nano structures have been obtained by laser surface treatment on sintered LaB₆ pellets employing a picosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser at a pressure of ∼1×10⁻³ mbar. The X-ray diffraction pattern of the laser treated pellet shows a set of well defined diffraction peaks, indexed to the cubic phase of LaB₆ only. The scanning electron microscope studies reveal formation of micro and nano structures upon laser treatment and the resultant surface morphology is found to be strongly influenced by the laser fluence. Field electron emission studies made on the LaB₆ pellet, treated with optimized laser fluence, have been performed in a planar diode configuration under ultra high vacuum conditions. The threshold field required to draw an emission current density of ∼10 μA/cm² has been found to be ∼2.3 V/μm and a current density of ∼530 μA/cm² has been drawn at an applied field of 5.2 V/μm. The Fowler-Nordheim plot is found to be linear in accordance with the quantum mechanical tunneling phenomenon, confirming the metallic nature of the emitter. The emission current at the pre-set value ∼10 μA shows very good stability over a period of more than 3 hours. The present results emphasize the effectiveness of a picosecond laser treatment towards fabrication of a nano metric LaB₆ emitter for high current density applications.     

Efficient generation of blue light by intracavity frequency doubling of a cw Nd:YAG laser with LBO

We report on the efficient room-temperature operation of ⁴F_3/2–⁴I_9/2 transition in a diode pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at 946 nm. An output power of 5.1 W and a slope efficiency of 23.6% at 946 nm have been obtained. Different LBO crystals of length 3×3×10 mm³, 3×3×15 mm³, 3×3×18 mm³ were selected as frequency doubling material for comparison. A maximum single-ended output power of 1.3 W at 473 nm was achieved by frequency doubling with an optical conversion efficiency of 5%. When the Nd:YAG rod was replaced by the one with high reflectivity coating at 473 nm on the pump side, the output power of blue light was almost twice that without high reflectivity coating for 473 nm at the same pump power level. Moreover, the theoretical optimum length of LBO crystal for intracavity frequency doubling was discussed, and the experimental results made a good agreement with it.     

All solid-state continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser at 1319 and 659.5 nm under direct 885 nm pumping

The continuous-wave high efficiency laser emission of Nd:YAG at the fundamental wavelength of 1319 nm and its 659.5-nm second harmonic obtained by intracavity frequency doubling with an LBO nonlinear crystal is investigated under pumping by diode laser at 885 nm (on the ⁴ F _3/2 → ⁴ I _13/2 transition). An end-pumped Nd:YAG crystal yielded 9.1 W at 1319 nm of continuous-wave output power for 18.2 W of absorbed pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power is 0.55. Furthermore, 5.2 W 659.5 nm red light is acquired by frequency doubling, resulting in an optical-to-optical efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power of 0.286. Comparative results obtained for the pump with diode laser at 808 nm (on the ⁴ F _5/2 → ⁴ I _13/2 transition) are given in order to prove the advantages of the 885 nm wavelength pumping.     

Calculation of the Loss Coefficient of Amplified Luminescence in the Active Layer of a Laser Diode

A method to calculate the loss coefficient of amplified luminescence _loss ^lum in the active layer of a laser diode on the basis of radiation transfer equations and the balance between emission, amplification, and absorption of spontaneous radiation is suggested. The values of _loss ^lum and also of the density of fluxes of amplified luminescence have been determined in one- and two-dimensional approximations for laser diodes based on GaAs, GaN, and ZnSe compounds with different configurations of resonators.     

Efficient continuous-wave 908 nm Nd:YLF laser emission under direct 880 nm pumping

The quasi-three-level 908-nm continuous-wave laser emission under direct diode laser pumping at 880 nm into emitting level ⁴ F _3/2 of Nd:YLF have been demonstrated. An end-pumped Nd:YLF crystal yielded 4.7 W of output power for 11.8 W of absorbed pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power was 43.3%. Comparative results obtained for the pump with diode laser at 808 nm, into the highly-absorbing ⁴ F _5/2 level, are given in order to prove the advantages of the 880-nm wavelength pumping.     

Corrugated neat thin-film conjugated polymer distributed-feedback lasers

Wave-guided thin-film distributed-feedback (DFB) polymer lasers are fabricated by spin coating a PPV-derived semiconducting polymer, thianthrene-DOO-PPV, onto oxidised silicon wafers with corrugated second-order periodic gratings. The gratings are written by reactive ion beam etching. Laser action is achieved by transverse pumping with picosecond laser pulses (wavelength 347.15 nm, duration 35 ps). The DFB-laser surface emission and edge emission are analysed. Outside the grating region the polymer film is used for comparative wave-guided travelling wave laser (amplified spontaneous emission (ASE)) studies. The pump pulse threshold energy density for wave-guided DFB-laser action (4–9 μJ cm^-2) is found to be approximately a factor of two lower than the threshold for wave-guided travelling wave laser action. The spectral width of the DFB laser (down to Δλ_DFB≈0.07 nm) is considerably narrower than that of the travelling wave laser (Δλ_TWL≈14 nm). The DFB-laser emission is highly linearly polarised transverse to the grating axis (TE mode). Only at high pump pulse energy densities does an additional weak TM mode build up. The surface-emitted DFB-laser radiation has a low divergence along the grating direction. For both the DFB lasers and the travelling wave lasers, gain saturation occurs at high excitation energy densities. Received: 7 January 2002 / Revised version: 15 February 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

CO2 laser-induced crystallization of sol–gel-derived indium tin oxide films

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films prepared by the sol–gel method have been deposited by the dip-coating process on silica substrates. CO₂ laser is used for annealing treatments. The electrical resistivity of sol–gel-derived ITO thin films decreased following crystallization after exposure to CO₂ laser beam. The topological and electrical properties of the irradiated surfaces have been demonstrated to be strongly related to the coating solution and to the laser processing parameters. Optimal results have been obtained for 5 dip-coating layers film from 0.4 mol/l solution irradiated by 0.6 W/m² laser power density. In this case, homogeneous and optically transparent traces were obtained with a measured sheet resistance of 1.46×10² Ω/□.     

All solid-state continuous-wave intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>-LBO red laser at 671.5 nm

We report for the first time a efficient compact red laser at 671.5 nm generation by intracavity frequency doubling of a continuous wave laser operation of a diode direct pumped Nd:LuVO₄ laser on the ⁴ F _3/2 → ⁴ I _13/2 transition at 1343 nm. An LBO crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching at room temperature is used for second harmonic generation of the laser. At an absorbed pump power of 16.2 W, as high as 4.3 W of continuous wave output power at 671.5 nm is achieved with 10-mm-long LBO. Comparative results obtained for the pump with diode laser at 808 nm, into the highly-absorbing ⁴ F _5/2 level, are given in order to prove the advantages of the 880 nm wavelength pumping.