Low-Threshold and High-Power Oxide-Confined 850 nm AlInGaAs Strained Quantum-Well Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers Based on Intra-Cavity Contacted Structure

The low-threshold and high-power oxide-confined 850 nm AlInGaAs strained quantum-well （QW） vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers （VCSELs） based on the intra-cavity contacted structure are fabricated. The threshold current of 0.1 mA for a 10-μm oxide-aperture device is obtained with the threshold current density of 0.127kA/cm^2. For a 22-μm oxide-aperture device, the peak optical output power reaches to 14.6mW at the current injection of 25 mA under the room temperature and pulsed operation with a threshold current of 2mA, which corresponds to the threshold current density of 0.526kA/cm^2. The lasing wavelength is 855.4nm. The full wave at half maximum is 2.2 nm. The analysis of the characteristics and the fabrication of VCSELs are also described.     

Continuous Wave Performance and Tunability of MBE Grown 2.1μm InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb MQW lasers

InCaAsSb/AlGaAsSb multi quantum well ridge waveguide lasers at 2.1 μm wavelength are fabricated by using molecular beam epitaxy. Continuous wave performance and tunability of the lasers are evaluated in a wide temperature range extend to 80℃. Output power of the laser at 30℃ exceeds 30 m W/facet at driving current of 0.5 A, the characteristic temperature To is 89K in 0-50℃ range. No fast degradation is observed in accelerated aging test at 90℃ for those lasers with lower Al content in cladding layers. Temperature tunability of the lasers is 1.36 nm/K. Single-mode output with side mode suppression ratios greater than 20 dB is achieved in a certain driving current region; current tunability is 8 × 10^-3 nm/mA regardless of mode hopping.     

Low Threshold Distributed Feedback Quantum Cascade Lasers with Widely Spaced Emission Wavelengths

We report lasing properties of distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers （DFB QCLs） including a doublephonon-resonance active region, at wavelength of about 8.4 μm. A broad gain spectrum is generated due to the coupling between the lower laser level in the active region and the levels in the injector, and is demonstrated by the lasing spectrum of the corresponding Fabry-Perot QCLs whose width is 0.5 μm at 1.5 times of the threshold current. As a result, the DFB QCLs employing different grating periods exhibit a wavelength span of 0.18μm at room temperature and total wavelength coverage of 0.28μm at various heat sink temperatures. A high side mode suppression ratio of about 30dB and a low threshold current density of 1.78kA/cm^2 are achieved as the lasers operate at room temperature in pulsed mode.     

Gain Measurement and Anomalous Decrease of Peak Gain at Long Wavelength for InAs/GaAs Quantum-Dot Lasers

Mode gain spectrum is measured by the Fourier series expansion method for InAs/GaAs quantum-dot （QD） lasers with seven stacks of QDs at different injection currents. Gain spectra with distinctive peaks are observed at the short and long wavelengths of about 1210nm and 1300nm. For a QD laser with the cavity length of 1060μm, the peak gain of the long wavelength first increases slowly or even decreases with the injection current as the peak gain of the short wavelength increases quickly, and finally increases quickly before approaching the saturated values as the injection current further increases.     

Single-mode and tunable VCSELs in the near- to mid-infrared

Single-mode, long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers （VCSELs） in the near- to mid-infrared covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3 μm are presented. This wide spectral emission range opens applications in gas sensing and optical interconnects. All these lasers are monolithically grown in the InGaAlAs-InP material system utilizing a buried tunnel junction （BTJ） as current aperture. Fabricated with a novel high-speed design with reduced parasitics, bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz at 1.3 and 1.55 μm have been achieved. Therefore, the coarse wavelength division multiplexing （CWDM） wavelength range of 1.3 to 1.6 μm at 10 Gb/s can be accomplished with one technology. Error-free data-transmission at 10 Gb/s over a fiber link of 20 km is demonstrated. One-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with emission wavelengths addressable by current tuning. Micro-electro-mechanical system （MEMS） tunable devices provide an extended tuning range in excess of 50 nm with high spectral purity. All these devices feature continuous-wave （CW） operation with typical single-mode output powers exceeding 1 mW. The operation voltage is around 1 - 1.5 V and power consumption is as low as 10 - 20 mW. Furthermore, we have also developed VCSELs based on GaSb, targeting functionality of tunable diode laser spectroscopy （TDLS） applying a 1.84-μm VCSEL. at the wavelength range from 2.3 to 3.0 μm. The systems is shown by presenting a laser hygrometer     

Single-mode and tunable VCSELs in the near- to mid-infraredInvited Paper

Single-mode, long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in the near- to mid-infrared covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3μm are presented. This wide spectral emission range opens applications in gas sensing and optical interconnects. All these lasers are monolithically grown in the InGaA1As-InP material system utilizing a buried tunnel junction (BTJ) as current aperture. Fabricated with a novel high-speed design with reduced parasitics, bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz at 1.3 and 1.55 μm have been achieved. Therefore, the coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) wavelength range of 1.3 to 1.6 μm at 10 Gb/s can be accomplished with one technology. Error-free data-transmission at 10 Gb/s over a fiber link of 20 km is demonstrated. One-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with emission wavelengths addressable by current tuning. Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) tunable devices provide an extended tuning range in excess of 50 nm with high spectral purity. All these devices feature continuous-wave (CW) operation with typical single-mode output powers exceeding 1 mW. The operation voltage is around 1 - 1.5 V and power consumption is as low as 10 - 20 mW. Furthermore, we have also developed VCSELs based on GaSb, targeting at the wavelength range from 2.3 to 3.0 μm. The functionality of tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS) systems is shown by presenting a laser hygrometer applying a 1.84-μm VCSEL.     

High-Power Operation of Uncoated Strain-Compensated Quantum Cascade Lasers at 4.8μm

High-power operation of uncoated 22μm-wide quantum cascade lasers （QCLs） emitting at λ～ 4.8μm is reported. The emitting region of the QCL structure consists of a 30-period strain-compensated Ino.68 Gao.32 As/In0.37 Alo.63 As superlattice. For a 4-mm-long laser in pulsed mode, a peak output power is achieved in excess of 2240mW per facet at 81K with a threshold current density of 0.64 kA/cm^2. The effects of varying the cavity lengths from 1 to 4 mm on the performances of the QCLs are analysed in detail and the low waveguide loss of only about 1.4 cm^-1 is extracted.     

Distributed Feedback Laser with Sampled Grating

A distributed feedback laser with the sampled grating has been designed and fabricated. The typical threshold current of the sampled grating based DFB laser is 32mA, and the output power is about 10mW at the injected current of 100mA. The lasing wavelength is 1.5564μm, which is the -1^st order mode of the sampled grating.     

A 10Gb/s Directly-Modulated 1.3μm InAs/GaAs Quantum-Dot Laser

We demonstrate 10 Gb/s directly-modulated 1.3 μm InAs quantum-dot （QD） lasers grown on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The active region of the QD lasers consists of five-stacked InAs QD layers. Ridge-waveguide lasers with a ridge width of 4 μm and a cavity length of 600 μm are fabricated with standard lithography and wet etching techniques. It is found that the lasers emit at 1293 nm with a very low threshold current of 5 mA at room temperature. Furthermore, clear eye-opening patterns under 10 Gb/s modulation rate at temperatures of up to 50oC are achieved by the QD lasers. The results presented here have important implications for realizing low-cost, low-power-consumption, and high-speed light sources for next-generation communication systems.     

Mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser reaching 3.68 μm wavelength

We report a continuous-wave Er:ZBLAN fiber laser with the operation wavelength reaching 3.68 μm.The midinfrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser is pumped with the dual-wavelength sources consisting of a commercial laser diode at 970 nm and a homemade Tm-doped fiber laser at 1973 nm.By increasing the launched pump power at1973 nm,the laser wavelength can be switched from 3.52 to 3.68 μm.The maximum output power of 0.85 W is obtained with a slope efficiency of 25.14% with respect to the 1973 nm pump power.In the experiment,the laser emission at 3.68 μm is obtained with a significant power of 0.62 W,which is the longest emission wavelength in free-running Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers.     

Influence of Growth Temperature and Trimethylindium Flow of InGaN Wells on Optical Properties of InGaN Multiple Quantum-Well Violet Light-Emitting Diodes

An InGaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) violet-light-emitting diode (LED) is grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition. It is found that photoluminescence wavelength of the InGaN MQW violet LED is lengthened with increasing growth temperature and with the increasing trimethylindium flow of the InGaN wells. The electroluminescence peak wavelength of the violet LED are about 401 nm with full width at half maximum of 14nm, and the output power in injection current of 2OmA at room temperature is 4.1mW.     

High-Power and Low-Threshold-Current-Density GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Cascade Lasers

We report on the realization of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade lasers with an emission wavelength of 9.1 μm above the liquid nitrogen temperature. With optimal current injection window and ridge width of 24 and 60μm respectively, a peak output power more than 500mW is achieved in pulsed mode operation. A low threshold current density Jth = 2.6 kA/cm^2 gives the devices good lasing characteristics. In a drive frequency of i kHz, the laser operates up to 20% duty cycle.     

Passively Q-switched green laser operation using CdTe/CdS quantum dots

The direct generation of passively Q-switched lasers at a green wavelength has rarely been investigated in the past. In this Letter, we demonstrate a passively Q-switched praseodymium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride green laser at 522 nm using CdTe/CdS quantum dots as a saturable absorber. A maximum average output power of 33.6 m W is achieved with the shortest pulse width of 840 ns. The corresponding pulse energy and peak power reached 0.18 μJ and 0.21 W, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration in regard to a quantum dots saturable absorber operating in the green spectral region.     

Optical and Electronic Properties of InGaN／GaN Multi—Quantum—Wells Near—Ultraviolet Lighting—Emitting—Diodes Grown by Low—Pressure Metalorganic Vapour Phase Epitaxy

The near-ultraviolet lighting-emitting-diodes (UV-LEDs) with the InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well (MQW) structure were grown by low-pressure metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy. The double crystal x-ray diffraction revealed a distinct second-order satellite peak. The near-ultraviolet InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs have been successfully fabricated to emit at 401.2nm with narrow FWHM of 14.3nm and the forward voltage of 3.6 V at 20 mA injection current at room temperature. With increasing forward current from l 0 mA to 50 mA, the redshift of the peak wavelength was observed due to the band-gap narrowing caused by heat generation.     

Single-mode and tunable VCSELs in the near-to mid-infrared Invited Paper

Single-mode,long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers(VCSELs)in the near-to mid-infrared covering the wavelength range from 1.3 to 2.3μm are presented.This wide spectral emission range opens applications in gas sensing and optical interconnects.All these lasers are monolithically grown in the InGaAlAs-InP material system utilizing a buried tunnel junction(BTJ)as current aperture.Fabricated with a novel high-speed design with reduced parasitics,bandwidths in excess of 10 GHz at 1.3 and 1.55μm have been achieved.Therefore,the coarse wavelength division multiplexing(CWDM)wavelength range of 1.3 to 1.6μm at 10 Gb/s can be accomplished with one technology.Error-free data-transmission at 10 Gb/s over a fiber link of 20 km is demonstrated.One-dimensional arrays have been fabricated with emission wavelengths addressable by current tuning.Micro-electro-mechanical system(MEMS)tunable devices provide an extended tuning range in excess of 50 nm with high spectral purity.All these devices feature continuous-wave(CW)operation with typical single-mode output powers exceeding 1 mW.The operation voltage is around 1-1.5 V and power consumption is as low as 10-20 mW.Furthermore,we have also developed VCSELs based on GaSb,targeting at the wavelength range from 2.3 to 3.0μm.The functionality of tunable diode laser spectroscopy(TDLS)systems is shown by presenting a laser hygrometer applying a 1.84-μm VCSEL.     

Sixteen-element Ge-on-SOI PIN photo-detector arrays for parallel optical interconnects

We describe the structure and testing of one-dimensional array parallel-optics photo-detectors with 16 photodiodes of which each diode operates up to 8 Gb/s. The single element is vertical and top illuminated 30μm-diameter silicon on insulator （Ge-on-SOI） PIN photodetector. High-quality Ge absorption layer is epitaxially grown on SO1 substrate by the ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition （UHV-CVD）. The photodiode exhibits a good responsivity of 0.20 A/W at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The dark current is as low as 0.36/aA at a reverse bias of 1 V, and the corresponding current density is about 51 mA/cm2. The detector with a diameter of 30 t.trn is measured at an incident light of 1.55 μm and 0.5 mW, and the 3-dB bandwidth is 7.39 GHz without bias and 13.9 GHz at a reverse bias of 3 V. The 16 devices show a good consistency.     

A Stable Porous Silicon Dielectric Reflector with a Photonic Band Gap Centred at 10μm

By pulsed anodic etching at low temperature, we prepared a porous silicon reflector with a photonic band gap centred in the long-wavelength infrared spectral region （centred at about 12 μm）. After proper oxidation process, the stable reflector structure, which can reflect electromagnetic wave from 8 μm to 12 μm （centred at 10 μm） within wide incidence angles （about 50°）, is obtained. The wavelength shift of absorption peak of Si-H and Si-O shows the influence of oxidation process and indicates the stability of oxidized porous silicon dielectric reflector, which offers possible applications for the room temperature infrared sensor.     

Mid-IR Laser Generating Ultrasound in a Polyetheretherketone Polymer

We demonstrate laser ultrasonic generation in polyetheretherketone(PEEK). A middle infrared ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillator(ZGP-OPO) pumped by a Q-switched Ho:YAG laser is employed as the ultrasonic excitation source. The ZGP-OPO has a spectral range of 3.2–3.4 μm. At an output wavelength of 3.4 μm, the maximum average output power of ZGP-OPO is 3.05 W with a pulse width of 24.3 ns, corresponding to a peak power of approximately 127.5 kW. The ultrasound is generated by the laser converted from 3.2 to 3.4 μm in the PEEK composite. The maximum ultrasonic signal amplitude in PEEK is 33 mV under the condition of thermoelastic excitation at 3.4 μm. Ablation occurs in the CPRF sample when the energy fluence is over 122.45 m J/cm~2. PEEK has a stronger absorption at 3.4 μm and laser-ultrasound generation is influenced by the wavelength of the laser.     

Short Tm^3＋-doped fiber lasers with watt-level output near 2 μm

High-power operation of diode-pumped fiber lasers at wavelength near 2 μm are demonstrated with short length of heavily Tm^3＋-doped silica glass fibers. With 7-cm long fiber, a laser at near 2 μm is obtained with the threshold of 135 mW, maximum output power of 1.09 W, and slope efficiency of 9.6% with respect to the launched power from a laser diode at 790 nm. The output stability of this fiber laser is within 5%. The dependence of the performance of fiber lasers on the operation temperature and cavity configuration parameters is also investigated.     

Oxide-aperture-dependent output characteristics of circularly symmetric VCSEL structure

The influence ot oxidation aperture on the output characteristics ot the circularly symmetric vertical-cavity-surtaceemitting laser(VCSEL) structure is investigated.To do so,VCSELs with different oxide aperture sizes are simulated by the finite-difference time-domain(FDTD) method.The relationships among the field distribution of mode superposition,mode wavelength,output spectra,and far-field divergence with different oxide apertures are obtained.Further,VCSELs respectively with oxide aperture sizes of 2.7 μm,4.4 μm,5.9 μm,7 μm,8 μm,9 μm,and 18.7 μm are fabricated and characterized.The maximum output power increases from 2.4 mW to 5.7 mW with oxide aperture increasing from 5.9 μm to 9 μm.Meanwhile,the wavelength tuning rate decreases from 0.93 nm/mA to 0.375 nm/mA when the oxide aperture increases from 2.7 μm to 9 μm.The thermal resistance decreases from 2.815℃/mW to 1.015℃/mW when the oxide aperture increases from 4.4 μm to 18.7μm.It is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally that the wavelength spacing between adjacent modes increases with the augment of the injection current and the spacing becomes smaller with the oxide aperture increasing.Thus it can be reported that the aperture size can effectively reduce the mode overlaying but at the cost of the power decreasing and the wavelength tuning rate and thermal resistance increasing.