高功率垂直外腔面发射半导体激光器增益设计及制备

垂直外腔面发射半导体激光器(vertical external cavity surface emitting laser, VECSEL)兼具高功率与良好的光束质量,是半导体激光器领域的持续研究热点之一.本文开展了光抽运VECSEL最核心的多量子阱增益区设计,对量子阱增益光谱及其峰值增益与载流子浓度及温度等关系进行系统的理论优化,并对5种不同势垒构型的量子阱增益特性进行对比,证实采用双侧GaAsP应变补偿的发光区具有更理想的增益特性.对MOCVD生长的VECSEL进行器件制备,实现了VECSEL在抽运功率为35 W时输出功率达到9.82 W,并且功率曲线仍然没有饱和;通过变化外腔镜的反射率, VECSEL的激光波长随抽运功率的漂移系数由0.216 nm/W降低至0.16 nm/W,证实外腔镜反射率会影响VECSEL增益芯片内部热效应,从而影响VECSEL激光输出功率.所制备VECSEL在两正交方向上的发散角分别为9.2°和9.0°,激光光斑呈现良好的圆形对称性.

Design of gain region of high-power vertical external cavity surface emitting semiconductor laser and its fabrication

The vertical external cavity surface emitting laser(VECSEL) is one of the hottest research fields of semiconductor lasers, due to its high power and good beam quality. However, there are few reports about how to systematically design the active region of VECSEL. In this paper, the gain design of quantum wells, which are the most important region within the VECSEL, is carried out.To achieve low power consumption under high temperature condition, epitaxial structure of the VECSEL is optimized by using the commercial software PICS3 D. Firstly, the relationship between the structure of quantum well and the gain is simulated by the k·p method. Then, the gain spectra of quantum wells at different carrier densities and temperatures are compared with each other, and the optimal composition and thickness of quantum well are thus determined. The temperature drift coefficient is 0.36 nm/K, obtained by simulating the drift of the gain peak wavelength at the working temperature. Finally, the gain spectra of quantum wells with five different barriers are compared with each other. The slight blue shift of the gain peak in the quantum well with five different barriers accommodates the different emission thermal drifts of the quantum well at high temperature operation. With the GaAsP barriers on both sides of quantum well the gain characteristics of quantum wells can be improved efficiently.The designed structure is deposited by the MOCVD system. According to the reflection spectrum of the gain chip, measured by ellipsometer, the stop-band over 100 nm is centered at the about 970 nm wavelength,confirming accurate growth of the VECSEL. The 808 nm pump laser is focused on the surface of VECSEL chip at an incident angle from 30° to 50°. The VECSEL light-light characteristics are tested under the output coupling mirror with different reflectivity. The output power of VECSEL with a 97.7% reflectance output coupling mirror reaches 9.82 W at the pumping power of 35 W, without saturating the power curve. By using the external mirrors with different reflectivity, there appears the wavelength shift with the pumping power changing from 0.216 nm/W to 0.16 nm/W. Thus, the internal heating effects are different for VECSEL with different mirrors. The divergence angles at two orthogonal directions are 9.2° and 9.0°, respectively. And the circle profile of optical field shows good symmetry.