基于V型腔光反馈法的半导体激光器线宽压窄和频率锁定初步研究

线宽压窄和频率锁定是提高激光器(特别是半导体激光器)性能的重要手段。在理论分析光反馈时的半导体激光器线宽压窄和频率锁定机理的基础上,建立了一套基于高品质V型光学谐振腔的半导体激光器线宽压窄实验系统,并利用该系统开展了初步实验研究。通过对比无有光反馈情况下的V型腔的透射光扫描线形,初步验证了V型腔用于半导体激光器线宽压窄和频率锁定的可行性,为后续研究奠定了基础。     

F-P腔不同扫频段透射谱锁频精度实验

针对窄线宽激光器输出谱线窄,难以被锁定的情况,利用F-P腔特有极窄线宽、高精细度特性对激光器谱线线宽实施压窄及频率锁定。通过设计实验方案并搭建锁频测试平台,利用F-P腔外部光反馈将窄线宽半导体激光器线宽压窄来提高锁频精度。通过监测正弦波调制下F-P腔对于4种不同直流电压下激光PZT扫频段的透射谱线,并对其分别进行解调和锁频精度测试,得到直流高压放大器电压为73 V时对窄线宽激光器进行扫频,激光器反馈锁频精度最高可达1.5 MHz。     

掺Er光纤飞秒激光器中电光晶体对激光器参数的影响

由于受增益介质上能级寿命的影响,掺Er光纤光梳的梳齿线宽一般在百kHz量级.为了实现光梳梳齿线宽的压窄,一种有效的方法是在激光器中增加快速响应的电光晶体,使光纤光梳的伺服锁定带宽提高到百kHz以上,为光纤光梳的快速伺服锁定提供反馈机构.这其中,高品质的飞秒激光器是核心.基于此,本文主要研究了掺Er光纤飞秒激光器中电光晶体对激光器参数的影响.通过计算电光晶体的折射率、色散、相位延迟等参数,分析了电光晶体对激光器参数的影响,并在实验上获得了电光晶体电压对激光器重复频率和载波包络偏移频率的影响,进而通过电光晶体实现了对光纤光梳重复频率和载波包络偏移频率的锁定.通过锁定光纤飞秒激光器与窄线宽激光器的拍频信号,验证了电光晶体的引入使激光器的伺服锁定带宽提高到了236 kHz,为窄线宽飞秒光学频率梳的建立提供了技术基础.     

基于自制超稳定F-P腔压窄632.8nm外腔半导体激光线宽的实验研究

窄线宽激光由于其具有单色性好、稳定度高、相干长度长等优点,广泛应用于光电检测领域,包括相干通信、精密测量、光学频率标准、吸收光谱计量以及光与物质相互作用研究等。目前频率稳定的氦氖激光器线宽可以达到MHz量级,分布反馈式（DFB）光纤激光器线宽可达kHz量级,DFB半导体激光器线宽可以达到MHz量级,然而光栅反馈半导体激光器可以实现百kHz量级线宽的输出。为了进一步压窄各类激光器线宽,需要通过反馈控制技术来锁定激光到某一频率参考。该研究将自行设计的超稳腔作为频率参考,实现了632.8 nm外腔半导体激光器（ECDL）线宽的有效压窄。本窄线宽激光产生系统的研制包括超稳腔设计、光路设计、ECDL频率控制以及系统集成。超稳腔采用两镜法布里-珀罗腔（F-P腔）结构,腔体是膨胀系数约为10-6 K-1的微晶玻璃,腔镜为一对反射率达99.988 5%(±0.003 5%）的平面镜和凹面镜。为进一步减小外界环境对F-P腔腔长的影响,需要对腔体进行温度控制,本系统采用四片总功率为96 W的半导体制冷片以及水冷散热设计。同时为了降低声音和空气流动对腔模频率的影响,将F-P腔置于真空度为10-5 torr的真空室中;另外为了有效隔振,腔体与真空室用硅橡胶材料隔离。该系统采用的ECDL为德国Toptica公司的DL pro系列激光器,其具有压电陶瓷（PZT）和电流调制两个频率控制端,响应带宽分别为1 kHz和100 MHz。激光器的频率控制采用了Pound-Drever-Hall （PDH）锁频技术,18 MHz的调制频率加载到激光器的电流调制端,通过对F-P腔的反射信号进行解调获得误差信号,通过两路反馈控制,实现了近1 MHz的锁定带宽。通过对系统的不断优化,最后将自由运转状态下约300 kHz的激光线宽压窄到了10 kHz量级,并且系统运行稳定,连续12小时锁定的频率漂移量约为30 MHz。该研究研制的632.8 nm窄线宽激光源不仅可以应用到吸收光谱计量领域,同时也可以在光学面型精密测量领域发挥重要作用。     

半导体激光器的线宽压窄及频率连续调谐

我们利用共焦F—P腔光学弱反馈技术，实现了单模GaAlAs半导体激光器线宽压窄、频率锁定及连续调谐。其线宽从自由运转时的10MHz被压窄到45kHz，并可将频率锁定于共焦F—P腔。实验证明，在弱反馈情况下，激光器的频率连续调谐范围与共焦FP腔的光强反馈量近似成正比，实现了在铷原子D2线附近1．2GHz的频率连续调谐，     

利用自相位延迟方法测量单块腔反馈半导体外腔激光器的线宽

提出了采用单块折叠法布里-珀罗(F-P)腔作为外腔反馈元件实现窄线宽半导体激光器,采用单块腔的光学反馈来锁定外腔激光器,使用自相位延迟法测量该窄线宽激光器的线宽。实验结果表明,激光器线宽小于35kHz。实验还观测到由于单块腔耦合面上各耦合点的几何量和物理量误差不一样,随着折叠面兼输入输出耦合面上的耦合点的变化,外腔激光器的线宽发生改变。     

基于光学反馈频率锁定的窄线宽稳定中红外激光产生技术研究

中红外精密激光光谱技术在痕量气体检测、基本物理常数测定等领域都有重要应用,然而由于缺乏窄线宽、稳定的中红外光源,很难实现中红外精密光谱测量.本文介绍了一种基于光学反馈频率锁定的窄线宽稳定中红外激光产生技术,分析了光学反馈实现激光到F-P腔锁定的可行性,利用一个高精细度中红外超稳F-P腔作为频率参考,基于光学反馈技术实现了量子级联激光器到该超稳腔的锁定.经过评估得到激光器线宽被压窄到1.1 Hz,压窄激光线宽的同时稳定了激光频率,将激光器的长期漂移控制在20 kHz/12 h.其中,为了获取长时间稳定的光学反馈,基于PDH技术获取了误差信号,用于对反馈相位的实时伺服控制.     

强反馈光纤光栅外腔半导体激光器

在理论上对强外腔反馈情形的半导体激光器线宽压窄效应进行了分析，对消反膜剩余反射率，外腔反射率，外腔腔长对线宽压缩的影响进行了研究，在实验上采用光纤光栅作为反馈元件，与一端镀有消反膜的１．５μｍ波段的常规多纵模交导体激光器耦合，构成强反馈光纤光栅外腔半导体激光器，得到单频窄线宽的激光输出，静态下边模抑制比大于３０ｄＢ，线宽小于１２０ｋＨｚ。     

电负反馈半导体激光器中网络截止频率的影响及改进方案

计算机模拟表明半导体激光器非理想调频响应对反馈网络低频截止频率f_c的限制,阻碍提高线宽压窄率.半经典理论分析表明,用双电极非均匀线宽展览因子半导体激光器不仅能压窄谱线而且可以取消对f_c的限制,大大提高线宽压窄率.本文提出了电负反馈半导体激光器的改进方案.     

线宽增强因子对外光注入半导体激光器非线性单周期振荡特性的影响

线宽增强因子是影响半导体激光器输出特性的一个重要参量,不同材料不同结构类型的半导体激光器的线宽增强因子有较大的差异.利用光注入半导体激光器的单模速率方程模型,数值研究了线宽增强因子对外光注入半导体激光器的非线性单周期振荡特性的影响.结果表明:外光注入半导体激光器的动态特性对线宽增强因子的变化极为敏感,随着线宽增强因子的增加,在负失谐注入范围内单周期振荡区域显著增大,同时注入锁定的稳态输出被大大抑制.分析了线宽增强因子对非线性单周期振荡光谱特性和振荡频率的影响,结果表明:随着半导体激光器线宽增强因子的增大,单周期振荡的频率越大|当线宽增强因子不变时,单周期振荡的频率随注入光强度和频率失谐的增加而增加.     

Recent advances in laser self-injection locking to high-Q microresonators

The stabilization and manipulation of laser frequency by means of an external cavity are nearly ubiquitously used in fundamental research and laser applications. While most of the laser light transmits through the cavity, in the presence of some back-scattered light from the cavity to the laser, the self-injection locking effect can take place, which locks the laser emission frequency to the cavity mode of similar frequency. The self-injection locking leads to dramatic reduction of laser linewidth and noise. Using this approach, a common semiconductor laser locked to an ultrahigh-Q microresonator can obtain sub-Hertz linewidth, on par with state-of-the-art fiber lasers. Therefore it paves the way to manufacture high-performance semiconductor lasers with reduced footprint and cost. Moreover, with high laser power, the optical nonlinearity of the microresonator drastically changes the laser dynamics, offering routes for simultaneous pulse and frequency comb generation in the same microresonator. Particularly, integrated photonics technology, enabling components fabricated via semiconductor CMOS process, has brought increasing and extending interest to laser manufacturing using this method. In this article, we present a comprehensive tutorial on analytical and numerical methods of laser self-injection locking, as well a review of most recent theoretical and experimental achievements.     

Spectral line narrowing of a photonically generated microwave frequency comb with vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser mode-locked coupled oscillators

A technique is presented for narrowing the spectral linewidth of microwave signals generated photonically by heterodyning a pair of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers forming an extended optically coupled cavity. The experimentally demonstrated linewidth reduction, by as much as a factor of 10(4)--to less than 10 kHz in microwave frequencies up to a couple of gigahertz--is approximately ten times that expected with conventional line-narrowing techniques such as optical feedback. An interpretation is given in terms of mode locking in pairs of optically coupled lasers as a first demonstration in the frequency domain of lag synchronization of coupled oscillators. The results of theoretical modeling agree well with the experimental results.     

Experimental Study on Single Frequency Semiconductor Lasers with Fiber Bragg Reflector External Cavity

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Frequency stabilization in semiconductor lasers

Three promising methods of improving temporal coherence in semiconductor lasers are reviewed. They are the development of novel laser devices, a technique of optical feedback and a technique of electrical feedback. The main discussion in this paper is focused on the technique of electrical feedback. The theoretical limit of frequency stability and recent experimental results are presented with respect to the following five subjects which are indispensable in the realization of highly coherent lasers: (a) frequency stabilization; (b) improvements in frequency reproducibility; (c) linewidth reduction; (d) frequency tracking; and (e) stable, accurate and wideband frequency sweep.     

Low-Frequency Fluctuation and Frequency-Locking in Semiconductor Lasers with Long External Cavity Feedback

The properties of low-frequency fluctuations in semiconductor lasers with optical feedback from a long external cavity are experimentally studied. Frequency-locking of the laser light output to the injection current modulation is observed when the modulation frequency approaches the external cavity mode. The modulation frequency for the successful frequency-locking is always less than the external cavity mode frequency and the locking domains as a function of the modulation amplitude is asymmetric with respect to the frequency detuning.     

Fast, low-noise, mode-by-mode, cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy by diode-laser self-locking

A new technique of cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy is described. Molecular absorption spectra are obtained by recording the transmission maxima of the successive TEM_oo resonances of a high-finesse optical cavity when a Distributed Feedback Diode Laser is tuned across them. A noisy cavity output is usually observed in such a measurement since the resonances are spectrally narrower than the laser. We show that a folded (V-shaped) cavity can be used to obtain selective optical feedback from the intracavity field which builds up at resonance. This induces laser linewidth reduction and frequency locking. The linewidth narrowing eliminates the noisy cavity output, and allows measuring the maximum mode transmissions accurately. The frequency locking permits the laser to scan stepwise through the successive cavity modes. Frequency tuning is thus tightly optimized for cavity mode injection. Our setup for this technique of Optical-Feedback Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (OF-CEAS) includes a 50 cm folded cavity with finesse ∼20 000 (ringdown time ∼20 μs) and allows recording spectra of up to 200 cavity modes (2 cm⁻¹) using 100 ms laser scans. We obtain a noise equivalent absorption coefficient of ∼5×10⁻¹⁰ cm⁻¹ for 1 s averaging over scans, with a dynamic range of four orders of magnitude.     

Optical locking of two semiconductor lasers through high-order Brillouin Stokes components in optical fiber

A novel technique for optical injection locking of two semiconductor lasers through high-order Brillouin Stokes components in optical fiber is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The configuration potentially provides microwave signals generation at manifold Brillouin frequency without high-frequency external modulator and generator. Significant narrowing of the locked slave semiconductor laser linewidth was recorded.