Degradation of high-power semiconductor quantum-well lasers

A mechanism of degradation of semiconductor quantum-well lasers with a stripe contact more than 50 µm wide is proposed. This mechanism implies formation of several lasing channels at a carrier ambipolar diffusion length smaller than the contact width. The carrier diffusion length decreases with time due to the increase in the number of defects; as a result, the number of lasing channels increases and lasing spectrum is filled. The shape of the lasing spectrum can be used to predict the laser service life.     

Effect of diffusion and fluctuations in the nonequilibrium charge carrier density on the angular distribution of the output intensity for injection lasers based on an InAsSb/InAsSbP heterostructure

We have used numerical modeling to study the effect of diffusion and fluctuations in the nonequilibrium carrier density in the active layer of injection lasers based on an InAsSb/InAsSbP heterostructure on the angular distribution of the output intensity. We show that diffusion smoothes out the nonequilibrium carrier distribution in the active layer, and the fundamental lasing mode is stable over a much broader range of stripe contact widths. At the same time, diffusional processes can lead to formation of local regions with a jump in the density of nonequilibrium charge carriers, fluctuations in which can act as a source of instability for the fundamental lasing mode. Analysis of the numerical modeling results gives qualitative agreement with experimental data on the dependence of the angular distribution of the output radiation for different stripe contact widths.     

Temperature and current coefficients of lasing wavelength in tunable diode laser spectroscopy

The factors determining temperature and current coefficients of lasing wavelength are investigated and discussed under monitoring CO₂-gas absorption spectra. The diffusion rate of Joule heating at the active layer to the surrounding region is observed by monitoring the change in the junction voltage, which is a function of temperature and the wavelength (frequency) deviation under sinusoidal current modulation. Based on the experimental results, the time interval of monitoring the wavelength after changing the ambient temperature or injected current (scanning rate) has to be constant at least to eliminate the monitoring error induced by the deviation of lasing wavelength, though the temperature and current coefficients of lasing wavelength differ with the rate.     

Random lasing from dye-doped chiral nematic liquid crystals in oriented and non-oriented cells

These are the experimental results describing random lasing in dye-doped chiral nematic liquid crystals. A novel random lasing emission is studied in this article based on the helical domains of dye-doped chiral nematic liquid crystals in oriented and non-oriented cells. Under frequency doubled 532 nm Nd:YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) laser-pumped optical excitation, we carefully observed and analysed random lasing from dye-doped chiral nematic liquid crystals with wavelength ranges from 600 nm to 620 nm. In addition, the line-width of multi-mode peaks is less than 0.2 nm. The difference between the two random lasing behaviours in the oriented and non-oriented cells arises from the fact that random lasing appearing in the oriented cell results from stronger multiple scattering of light generated by the spiral domains of the liquid crystal molecules. Furthermore, chiral nematic liquid crystal micro-domains with different orientations can induce variation of the diffusion constant, thereby resulting in a decrease or increase in the lasing intensity of the random lasers, and an increase or decrease in their energy thresholds. In addition, a detailed comparison of the two experimental results is also presented in the article, showing the dependence of the lasing threshold and the number of lasing modes on the transport mean free path, the excited area, and the sample size. This process allows us to obtain a random laser by changing the structure of the sample, realising tunable random lasers at low cost.     

驱动场相位扩散对三能级梯型系统无反转激光的影响

在旋波、慢变振幅近似下,求解考虑了驱动场相位扩散后的系统密度矩阵运动方程,并给出了这个三能级梯型系统稳态线性解析解.利用得到的稳态线性解析解分析驱动场相位扩散是如何影响该系统输出无反转激光的.对稳态线性解析解数值计算的结果显示:由于驱动场相位扩散会导致无反转激光增益减小;即使由于驱动场相位扩散引起的线宽足够大,在该系统中仍能够获得无反转激光;线宽往往是破坏无反转激光产生和折射率的提高;因驱动场相位扩散导致无反转激光增益的减小,并不是总能够通过增大驱动场的Rabi频率得到补偿.     

Application of two-dimensional dynamic gain grating for generation of coherent radiation from spatially extended active media

Lasers with light-induced two-dimensional distributed feedback are investigated, in which a two-dimensional grating of the gain of the active medium, induced by several pump laser beams, is used to ensure the coupling of four partial wave flows propagating in mutually orthogonal directions. The starting conditions and nonlinear dynamics of lasers with a new kind of a two-dimensionally distributed feedback are analyzed within the semiclassical approximation. Self-similarity conditions are found, ensuring the scaling of the laser parameters under the conditions of maintenance of steady-state lasing regime upon an increase in the active region size, which is accompanied by an increase in the integrated output power. The effect of diffusion of nonequilibrium carriers on the lasing process and threshold conditions is analyzed.     

Diffusion and waveguiding effects in twin-stripe injection lasers

The properties of the twin-stripe injection laser are examined as functions of two parameters governing diffusion and waveguiding effects in the device. The carrier diffusion rate, as determined by the ambipolar diffusion coefficient,D, is shown to influence the current range over which lasing action is maintained. The curvature of the nonlinear portion of the light-current characteristic of the device is also changed asD is altered. It is found that the relative strengths of the guiding mechanisms acting upon the optical field further influence the characteristics of the structure.     

Unique spatial continuously tunable cone laser based on a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal with a birefringence gradient

The present study develops and investigates for the first time a unique spatial continuously tunable cone laser based on a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (DDCLC) film with an LC-birefringence (Δn) gradient. A continuous Δn variation can be generated in a cell by diffusion and self-organization of CLC after four DDCLC mixtures with a discrete variation of Δn are successively injected into an empty cell. Not only the CLC photonic structure but also the lasing wavelength and the cone angle of the obtained conically symmetric emitted lasing ring can be tuned continuously by continuously changing the pumped position of the cell with an Δn gradient. The continuous tunabilities in the lasing wavelength and the corresponding emitted cone angle of the lasing ring are 605.8 → 568.1 nm and 29° → 50°, respectively, within a spatial interval of about 33 mm in the cell.     

Polarization Dynamics of a Distributed-Feedback Dye Laser

The polarization dynamics of a dye-solution laser with light-induced distributed feedback (DFB) has been analyzed. A theoretical model of a DFB-laser, which makes it possible to calculate the dynamics of the lasing process for two orthogonally polarized modes, has been constructed. The influence of three main factors — rotational diffusion of dye molecules in solution, anisotropy of the saturation effect, and orientation of the electric vector of pumping beams with respect to the plane of their incidence — on the degree of polarization of output radiation has been investigated. Comparison of the calculated dependences with the results of experimental measurements has shown that the latter factor is of the greatest importance. It is shown that in this case, the degree of polarization of the output radiation of a DFB-laser can have a complex dynamics that does not correlate with the time behavior of the lasing pulse.     

Vertical－cavity Surface－emitting Lasers Fabricated Twice by Implantation Using TungstenWireasMaskandZincDiffusion

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OMVPE硒化锌薄膜的生长与激光特性

本文叙述了在GaAs衬底上用有机金属气相外延(OMVPE)法生长单晶ZnSe薄膜的方法。研究了生长温度,硒锌比对外延膜光电性能的影响。发现生长温度在285℃可以得到表面光亮、结晶性好、低阻、高迁移率、深中心浓度低的外延层。以光泵浦作激发研究了OMVPE ZnSe薄膜的受激发射性质并测量其光学增益。利用ZnSe/GaAs的自然解理面形成的光反馈腔制成了激光器。该激光器的工作温度可以延续到150K。     

Effect of Pump Area on Lasing Modes in Active Random Media

We investigate the effect of pump area on lasing modes in an active random medium. Considering the structure characteristics in a real experimental system, the random medium is divided into two regions, i.e. pump and non-pump areas. The dependence of lasing modes on the pump area is qualitatively explained by means of the model in which the lasing is ascribed to the interaction of the complex localized modes in the active random medium with local aperiodic quasi-structure with appropriate pump light. There exist different pump sizes for lasing with different modes. As the pump size decreases in this random system, the pump threshold of the lasing modes increases. There are different lasing modes in different excitation regions in this random system. This gives us some information about the dependence of lasing modes on pump areas in active random media.     

Injection seeding of lasing in microdroplets

Injection seeding of lasing has been achieved in both small (~20-mu; m radius) and larger (~35-mu; m radius) dye-doped microdroplets. Seeding is effective in enhancing the intensity from one lasing mode that normally occurs because of the droplet morphology. Competition between the seeded mode and unseeded lasing modes that have good spatial overlap with the seeded mode prevents lasing on some unseeded lasing modes.     

Investigation of a copper-vapor laser pumped by trains of damped sine pulses

A copper-vapor laser the lasing medium of which is pumped by damped sine voltage pulses is studied experimentally. It is shown that this laser can operate at megahertz lasing pulse repetition rates. Each current pulse in a train of damped sine excitation pulses generates a lasing pulse. The time between lasing pulses is no more than 224 ns, which corresponds to a lasing pulse repetition rate of more than 4.5 MHz. According to estimates, the use of the megahertz sine voltage to excite the copper-vapor laser may raise the specific power of laser radiation by at least an order of magnitude at an efficiency of ≈15%.     

活性无序介质中泵浦功率对局域模发射的影响

基于具有局域-非周期-类结构的活性无序介质中的复杂局域模与合适泵浦光的相互作用模型,研究活性无序介质中泵浦功率对局域模发射的影响,定性解释了泵浦功率对局域模发射的影响.结果表明,局域-非周期-类结构的无序介质的透射谱只与介质的结构有关,而与介质的损耗和增益无关,不同的激发模具有不同的泵浦功率阈值.     

Theoretical study on the lasing plasmon of a split ring for label-free detection of single molecules and single nanoparticles

This paper reports the plasmonic lasing of a split ring filled with gain material in water. The lasing mode(1500 nm)is far from the pump mode(980 nm), which can depress the detection noise from the pump light. The laser intensities of the two modes simultaneously increase by more than 10~3 in amplitude, which can intensify the absorption efficiency of the pumping light and enhance the plasmonic lasing. The plasmonic lasing is a sensitive sensor. When a single protein nanoparticle(n = 1.5, r = 1.25 nm) is trapped in the gap of the split ring, the lasing spectrum moves by 0.031 nm, which is much larger than the detection limit of 10~(-5) nm. Moreover, the lasing intensity is also very sensitive to the trapped nanoparticle. It reduces to less than 1/600 when a protein nanoparticle(n = 1.5, r = 1.25 nm) is trapped in the gap.     

Effect of inter-level relaxation and cavity length on double-state lasing performance of quantum dot lasers

Double-state lasing phenomena are easily observed in self-assembled quantum dot (QD) lasers. The effect of inter-level relaxation rate and cavity length on the double-state lasing performance of QD lasers is investigated on the basis of a rate equation model. Calculated results show that, for a certain cavity length, the ground state (GS) lasing threshold current increases almost linearly with the inter-level relaxation lifetime. However, as the relaxation rate becomes slower, the ratio of excited state (ES) lasing threshold current over the GS one decreases, showing an evident exponential behavior. A relatively feasible method to estimate the inter-level relaxation lifetime, which is difficult to measure directly, is provided. In addition, fast inter-level relaxation is favorable for the GS single-mode lasing, and leads to lower wetting layer (WL) carrier occupation probability and higher QD GS capture efficiency and external differential quantum efficiency. Besides, the double-state lasing effect strongly depends on the cavity length.     

Effect of inter-level relaxation and cavity length on double-state lasing performance of quantum dot lasers

Double-state lasing phenomena are easily observed in self-assembled quantum dot (QD) lasers. The effect of inter-level relaxation rate and cavity length on the double-state lasing performance of QD lasers is investigated on the basis of a rate equation model. Calculated results show that, for a certain cavity length, the ground state (GS) lasing threshold current increases almost linearly with the inter-level relaxation lifetime. However, as the relaxation rate becomes slower, the ratio of excited state (ES) lasing threshold current over the GS one decreases, showing an evident exponential behavior. A relatively feasible method to estimate the inter-level relaxation lifetime, which is difficult to measure directly, is provided. In addition, fast inter-level relaxation is favorable for the GS single-mode lasing, and leads to lower wetting layer (WL) carrier occupation probability and higher QD GS capture efficiency and external differential quantum efficiency. Besides, the double-state lasing effect strongly depends on the cavity length.     

Universal Single-Mode Lasing in Fully Chaotic Billiard Lasers

By numerical simulations and experiments of fully chaotic billiard lasers, we show that single-mode lasing states are stable, whereas multi-mode lasing states are unstable when the size of the billiard is much larger than the wavelength and the external pumping power is sufficiently large. On the other hand, for integrable billiard lasers, it is shown that multi-mode lasing states are stable, whereas single-mode lasing states are unstable. These phenomena arise from the combination of two different nonlinear effects of mode-interaction due to the active lasing medium and deformation of the billiard shape. Investigations of billiard lasers with various shapes revealed that single-mode lasing is a universal phenomenon for fully chaotic billiard lasers.     

Transition of lasing modes in disordered active photonic crystals

The transition from a photonic band-edge laser to a random laser in two-dimensional active photonic crystals is described. The lasing modes in the active photonic crystals shift from the edge of the photonic bandgap to the bulk of the gap when a certain amount of position and size disorder is introduced. The shift of lasing modes is determined with various gain profiles. The results show that the modulation of lasing modes is significant when the lasing transition wavelength overlaps the photonic bandgap.