Modulation enhancement of a laser diode in an external cavity

The influence of Zn-atom additive on ‘pure’ copper vapor laser output characteristics is studied. The laser pulse width, energy and power are found to increase under the diffusion of zinc atoms from a zinc-containing reservoir into the discharge of the copper-vapor laser at temperatures above 500°C. Additional absorption experiments and calculations are consistent with the conclusion that not only optical resonant pumping by the 213.9-nm Zn I line, but also other processes, should be taken into account to explain the effects of additive influence.     

Passive mode-locking in diode-pumped c-cut Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror

We demonstrated a diode-pumped passively mode-locked c-cut Nd:LuVO₄ picosecond laser with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror (SESAM) at a wavelength of 1067.8 nm. Due to the wide bandwidth of 0.48 nm, stable mode-locking has been generated with a duration as short as 3.7 ps, which is shorter than for the a-cut Nd:LuVO₄ laser. A maximum output power of 1.67 W was achieved to give a highest peak power of 3.47 KW at 18 W absorbed pump power.     

InGaAs diode laser system generating pulses of 580 fs duration and 366 W peak power

This paper reports the generation of fs light pulses by a passively mode-locked InGaAs master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system. The laser system generates chirped pulses with 6.2 ps duration, a center wavelength of 922 nm and 4 GHz repetition rate. Pulse compression by an external grating compressor reduces the pulse duration to 580 fs. The average power of the compressed pulses of 851 mW corresponds to a peak power of 366 W.     

AlGaInAs/InP eye-safe laser pumped by a Q-switched Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

An AlGaInAs quantum-well structure grown on a Fe-doped InP transparent substrate is developed to be a gain medium in a high-peak-power nanosecond laser at 1570 nm. Using an actively Q-witched 1064 nm laser to pump the gain chip, an average output power of 135 mW is generated at a pulse repetition rate of 30 kHz and an average pump power of 1.25 W. At a pulse repetition rate of 20 kHz, the peak output power is up to 290 W at a peak pump power of 2.3 kW.     

Mode-locked diode-pumped vanadate lasers operated with PbS quantum dots

The use of glasses doped with PbS nanocrystals as intracavity saturable absorbers for passive Q-switching and mode locking of c-cut Nd:Gd_0.7Y_0.3VO₄, Nd:YVO₄, and Nd:GdVO₄ lasers is investigated. Q-switching yields pulses as short as 35 ns with an average output power of 435 mW at a repetition rate of 6–12 kHz at a pump power of 5–6 W. Mode locking through a combination of PbS nanocrystals and a Kerr lens results in 1.4 ps long pulses with an average output power of 255 mW at a repetition rate of 100 MHz.     

Flexible laser diode trace gas sensor based on cavity ringdown spectroscopy with an optical fiber-coupled high-finesse external-cavity diode laser

A flexible and portable trace nitrogen dioxide sensor based on cavity ringdown spectroscopy using an optical fiber-coupled high-finesse cavity was successfully demonstrated. Tailoring the spatial mode matching condition of the core of an optical fiber and high-finesse external cavity allows for effective optical feedback into an antireflection-coated laser diode for stable resonant enhancement of the external cavity. The external cavity, which works as a ringdown cavity, could be remotely located from the light source and receiver section by only a single mode optical fiber. The sensitivity was found to be 1.0×10⁻⁷ cm⁻¹ in a compact 1-cm³ ringdown cavity volume.     

Tunable single-frequency operation of a diode-pumped vertical external-cavity laser at the cesium D<Subscript>2</Subscript> line

We report on a diode-pumped vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser emitting around 852 nm for Cesium atomic clocks experiments. We have designed a 7-quantum-well semiconductor structure optimized for low laser threshold. An output power of 330 mW was achieved for 1.1 W of incident pump power. Furthermore, a compact setup was built for low-power single-frequency emission. We obtained an output power of 17 mW in a single longitudinal mode, exhibiting both broad (9 nm) and continuous (14 GHz) tunability around the Cesium D₂ line. The laser frequency has been stabilized on an atomic transition with residual frequency fluctuations ∼300 kHz. Through a beatnote experiment the −3 dB laser linewidth has been measured to <500 kHz over 10 ms.     

Diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd:CTGG disordered crystal laser

A diode-pumped passively mode-locked Nd: CTGG disordered crystal laser has been experimentally demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. Mode locked with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror, the laser generated 5.2 ps pulses at a repetition rate of 88 MHz. After intracavity dispersion compensation, the mode-locked pulses were shortened to 4.3 ps. Multiple emission wavelengths of the Nd:CTGG laser could be synchronously mode locked under dispersion compensation.     

Sub-90 fs pulses from a passively mode-locked Yb:YAl<Subscript>3</Subscript>(BO<Subscript>3</Subscript>)<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

Passive mode locking of the self-frequency doubling Yb:YAB crystal with a saturable absorber mirror is studied at the fundamental wavelength. This laser has a very low threshold, and pulses as short as 85 and 87 fs are obtained for Ti:sapphire and diode laser pumping, respectively.     

400 mW and 16.5% wavelength conversion efficiency at 488 nm using a diode laser and a PPLN crystal in single pass configuration

Continuous wave power of more than 400 mW at 488 nm has been generated by frequency doubling of 2.45 W at 976 nm obtained from a distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser. This results in a wavelength conversion efficiency of 16.5% and an electrical-to-optical efficiency of more than 4.5%. We used a 50 mm long periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ bulk crystal in single-pass configuration for the second harmonic generation. This is to the author’s knowledge the highest output power and the highest wavelength conversion efficiency at 488 nm generated by a monolithic semiconductor laser device in single pass configuration with a bulk crystal. A deviation from the quadratic dependency of the frequency doubling is explained by the decrease of the beam quality of the fundamental wave.     

120 W high repetition rate Nd:YVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> MOPA laser with a Nd:YAG cavity-dumped seed laser

A master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system in which the output from an end-pumped Nd:YAG oscillator cavity dumped at 500 kHz is scaled up by a four-stage Nd:YVO₄ amplifier is reported. Decrease in extraction efficiency of the amplifier chain with crystals different from that in the oscillator was analyzed. With the 5.4 W seed output, 118 W of power was extracted from the amplifier chain at the pump power of 345 W, with an extraction efficiency of 34.2% and an overall optical–optical efficiency of 30.9% for the MOPA system. The beam quality factors were measured as M _x ²=1.45 and M _y ²=1.59 in two orthogonal directions, respectively.     

High-efficiency,high-speed VCSELs for optical interconnects

High-efficiency, high-speed, tapered-oxide-apertured vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) emitting at 980 nm have been demonstrated. By carefully engineering the tapered oxide aperture, the mode volume can be greatly reduced without adding much optical scattering loss for the device sizes of interest. Consequently, these devices can achieve higher bandwidth at lower current and power dissipation. In addition, the parasitics are reduced by implementing deep oxidation layers and an improved p-doping scheme in the top mirror. Our devices show modulation bandwidth exceeding 20 GHz, a record for 980 nm VCSELs. Moreover, 35 Gb/s operation has been achieved at only 10 mW power dissipation. This corresponds to a data-rate/power-dissipation ratio of 3.5 Gbps/mW. Most importantly, our device structure is compatible with existing manufacturing processes and can be easily manufactured in large volume making them attractive for optical interconnects.     

A diode-pumped, frequency-doubled, tunable single-mode quasi-continuous-wave Yb:YAG laser emitting 70 W peak power at 515 nm

An efficient pumping scheme for a quasi-continuous-wave diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser is presented. Single-mode operation and fine wavelength tuning are assured by the use of a rubidium titanyl phosphate (RTP) Fabry–Perot étalon. When frequency doubled, the 200–420 μs duration pulses reach a peak power of 70 W at a wavelength of 515 nm. The TEM₀₀ beam is nearly diffraction limited with an M ² factor of 1.06 at full power. The tuning range spans from 512 to 520 nm and the pulse to pulse frequency stability is on the order of ±10 MHz. Laboratoire Aimé Cotton is associated with Université Paris Sud 11.     

Threshold for strong thermal dephasing in periodically poled KTP in external cavity frequency doubling

We present a measurement series of the efficiency of periodically poled KTP used for second-harmonic generation in an external phase-locked cavity. Due to the high absorption (0.01 cm⁻¹) in the PPKTP crystal at the pump wavelength a strong thermal dephasing of the periodically poled grating is observed for high pump powers. For four different resonator setups, it was experimentally found that a threshold parameter could be defined as the ratio between the focal intensity in the crystal and the single-pass conversion efficiency. The value of this threshold for the onset of strong thermal dephasing was found to be 1.41×10¹⁰ W² m⁻² in our 30-mm long PPKTP sample. This threshold parameter marks the onset of thermally induced instability that leads to a degradation of the SHG conversion efficiency. Above the threshold the shape of the resonance peaks of the resonator changed from symmetrical into triangular making phase locking difficult.     

High-power diode-pumped Tm:YLF slab laser

A 2% Tm³⁺-doped LiYF₄(Tm:YLF) slab is double-end-pumped by two laser diode stacks. The pumped volume has a rectangular cross section. The Tm:YLF laser produced 148 W of continuos-wave output at 1912 nm in a beam with M _x ²≈199 and M _y ²≈1.7 for 554 W of incident pump power. The slope efficiency with respect to the incident pump power was 32.6%, and the optical-to-optical efficiency was 26.7%.     

Record performance from a Q-switched Er3+:Yb3+:YVO4 laser

A diode-pumped Yb³⁺, Er³⁺:YVO₄ laser was Q-switched by the rotating prism method and record performance obtained. Pulse energies of up to 0.2 mJ and pulse durations as short as 60 ns were demonstrated. A model based on a system of rate equations is also described and used to explain the observed behaviour.     

High-power resonantly diode-pumped CW Er<Superscript>3+</Superscript>:YAG laser

Using high-spatial and -spectral brightness laser diodes, a resonantly pumped high-power continuous-wave (CW) Er³⁺:YAG laser with up to 9 W of output power could be realized. Due to the lower upconversion loss in the 0.5% Er³⁺-doped crystal, intrinsic efficiencies of up to 64.3% and an optimum outcoupling of ∼20% were found. The output power was compared to quasi-three-level theory with good agreement. In an optimized cavity design a mode fill efficiency of ∼95% was achieved.     

Thermal lens effects in an Er<Superscript>3+</Superscript>:YAG laser with crystalline fiber geometry

A resonantly diode-pumped high-power continuous-wave Er³⁺:YAG laser with a crystalline fiber geometry based on total-internal-reflection pump guiding is reported. Up to 9.4 W of output power could be generated and a slope efficiency of 46.8% was achieved. Intrinsic efficiencies reached up to 48.8% and an optimum outcoupling of ∼20% was found. A strong thermal lens was observed and cavity stability and hysteresis effects were studied.     

Tunable dual-wavelength operation of an external cavity semiconductor laser

Tunable dual-wavelength operation of a laser diode has been achieved using a dual-period holographic element. The holographic element was positioned in Littrow configuration in an external cavity. The design of this holographic element was based on the superposition of a constant-period grating and a variable-period grating on the same location in a photoresist. We observed simultaneous emission at two wavelengths from a visible semiconductor laser operated with this holographic element. The spectral separation of the dual-wavelength output was varied from 0.76 to 6.27 nm by a simple translation of the holographic element.