Fast mode-hop-free acousto-optically tuned laser with a simple laser diode

A mode-hop-free tunable external-cavity Littrow diode laser with intracavity acousto-optic modulators (AOMs) has been built. The modes of the red laser diode without a special antireflection coating are shifted by varying the injection current. The external resonator modes and the grating selectivity are independently electrically alterable by two AOMs. Thus, a tuning of the external resonator over up to 1900 GHz is possible. A precise computer control of laser diode and AOMs allowed a single-mode tuning of the whole laser with a tuning range of 225 GHz in 250 s. Additionally, we demonstrated fast tuning over 90 GHz in 190 micros and a repetition rate of 2.5 kHz.     

Theory and experiment of CW dye laser injection locking and its application to second harmonic generation

High-power single-mode operation of a cw ring dye laser has been obtained by injection of cw single-mode radiation. The intracavity power of this system was used to generate tunable single-mode uv radiation by frequency doubling in a temperature phase-matched ADA crystal: up to 45 W intracavity fundamental power and up to 70 mW extracted uv power have been observed. A theoretical treatment of the injection locked cw ring dye laser system is given for the stationary state. Expressions for the intracavity intensities as a function of the small-signal gain and the saturation intensity are derived.     

大功率激光脉冲二极管触发高增益光导开关实验研究

研究了一种新型大功率激光脉冲二极管的输出特性,该激光二极管主要用于触发工作在高增益模式下的砷化镓光导开关。研制了基于射频金属-氧化物半导体场效应管的激光二极管驱动电路,可以为激光二极管提供上升沿、半高宽和峰值电流分别为4 ns,20 ns和130 A的脉冲驱动电流。研究了激光二极管输出的激光脉冲波形、能量、功率、光场分布等特性,并在Blumlein传输线结构中,研究了该大功率激光脉冲二极管的输出特性对工作于高增益模式下的光导开关的导通电阻、开关抖动等主要导通性能参数的影响规律。实验结果表明,激光脉冲的能量和功率越大,光斑面积越大、分布越均匀,在相同偏置电压条件下,光导开关的导通性能越好。     

气源MBE外延自组装GeSi量子点光致荧光研究

利用气源分子束外延设备（MBE）制作了GeSi自组装量子点样品。利用原子力显微镜（AFM）和光致荧光（PL）光谱研究了量子点的形貌和光学性质。气源MBE在较低温度下生长的量子点材料具有较高的量子点覆盖度。200K以下载流子以局域激子形式束缚在量子点中,激子束缚能约为17meV。升温至200K,载流子的输运过程发生变化。对量子点PL积分强度与温度关系曲线进行拟合得到量子点中空穴跃迁至浸润层的热激活能为129meV。     

Time-average holographic interferometry with a sinusoidally modulated laser diode

Laser diodes have the features of a single-mode operation and a frequency tunability. Holographic interferometry is described for investigating the vibrating amplitude and phase with a frequency-modulated laser diode. Sinusoidal wavelength change by varying laser injection current produces the sinusoidal phase modulation of relative phase difference between the reference and vibrating object paths. Holograms are made by time-average exposure of three-type recording modes with a laser diode. The phase of vibrating object is extracted from the measurements of Bessel-type fringe irradiances in three kinds of time-average holographic reconstruction. Experimental results of phase and amplitude for a vibrating cantilever object are shown.     

Mode selection in an unstable-resonator TEA CO2 laser by injection from a waveguide laser

The effect of injecting radiation from a cw waveguide CO₂ laser into a TEA laser through a hole in one mirror of its unstable resonator has been studied experimentally. High-power single longitudinal mode operation of the TEA laser is achieved over a wide but finite range of injection frequencies, the frequency of the single-mode pulse being that of the TEA laser cavity mode lying closest to the injected frequency. Although a simple theoretical model shows good qualitative agreement with observations it underestimates the range of injection frequencies which result in single-mode pulses unless a fast chirping of the cavity mode frequency is postulated.     

Investigation of the intracavity frequency doubling of a gain-switched InGaAs/GaAs pulsed diode laser

A mathematical model describing the dynamic emission of the intracavity frequency doubling (IFD) of a gain-switched two-section InGaAs/GaAs diode laser has been presented. One section is electrically pumped to provide gain, while the second section is unpumped (reverse biased) to provide a saturable absorber. The three-dimensional physical problem is reduced to one-dimensional model using adiabatic approximation, which allows the separation of the wavefunction. The suggested model in this paper allows studying the impact of the variations of the input InGaAs/GaAs/KTP diode laser parameters on the output pulsation characteristics. The proposed mathematical model is solved numerically using fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The numerical calculations reflect the influence of the variation of the applied gain current and saturable bias current on the output laser pulse characteristics. The numerical results show good consistency with the available experimental data in references.     

Below-band-gap waveguiding behaviors of a weakly index-guided GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well laser

We report the reduced waveguiding efficiency for the signals around 1560 nm as the injection current of an GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well laser diode (lasing wavelength at 840 nm) with a ridge-loading waveguide configuration increased. This reduction trend stopped when the injection current reached the threshold condition of the laser diode. The decreased waveguide transmission and the more expanded mode profile indicated the variation of the effective refractive index gradient in the lateral dimension with injection current. This variation was due to the refractive index decrease with increasing carrier density even below band gap. A slab waveguide model was used to simulate the lateral mode profile variation with injection current. The refractive index differences between the guiding layer and claddings in the slab waveguide model provided estimates of refractive index contrasts of the laser diode at a concerned wavelength under various injection conditions.     

Mode-hop-free fine tuning of an external-cavity diode laser with an intracavity liquid crystal cell

A planar nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell is incorporated into a Littman-type external cavity as the wavelength-tuning device for a semiconductor laser diode. By varying the driving voltage of the NLC cell and laser diode bias current simultaneously, we demonstrate single-mode oscillation and mode-hop-free tuning over 19.2 GHz at 775 nm. The result is in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Intensity and frequency noise reduction of a Nd:YAG NPRO via pump light stabilisation

We have shown that pump light intensity stabilisation of a single-mode laser diode pumped Nd:YAG non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO) results in significant intensity noise reduction of the NPRO, as well as frequency noise suppression in the same order of magnitude. This effect does not occur in conventional laser diode array pumped NPROs due to mode beating effects originating in the multi-mode pump. As opposed to individual intensity and frequency stabilisation, pump light stabilisation contributes a simplified stabilisation scheme for single-mode laser diode pumped NPROs for high precision applications. PACS 42.55.Xi; 42.60.By; 42.60.Lh     

Influence of injection patterns on chaos synchronization performance between a multimode laser diode and a single-mode laser

In this paper, based on a system composed of a multimode emitted laser diode and a single-mode received laser, chaos synchronization performance has been investigated numerically under different optical injection patterns. The results show that, for single mode injection (SMI) which means the received laser is injected by a selective longitudinal mode of the multimode emitted laser whose wavelength corresponds to that of the single-mode received laser, the system synchronization performance is better than that with multi mode injection (MMI); depending on the optical spectrum of the received laser, the physical mechanism of chaos synchronization deterioration for MMI is given. Additionally, after taking into account the parameter mismatches, the chaos synchronization performance of the system with different injection pattern have also been discussed. For either SMI or MMI, the synchronization performance with negative parameter mismatches is better than that with positive parameter mismatches.     

Linewidth and tuning characteristics of terahertz quantum cascade lasers

We have measured the spectral linewidths of three continuous-wave quantum cascade lasers operating at terahertz frequencies by heterodyning the free-running quantum cascade laser with two far-infrared gas lasers. Beat notes are detected with a GaAs diode mixer and a microwave spectrum analyzer, permitting very precise frequency measurements and giving instantaneous linewidths of less than -30 kHz. Characteristics are also reported for frequency tuning as the injection current is varied.     

非对称结构大功率940nm量子阱激光器

为改善940 nm大功率InGaAs/GaAs半导体激光器输出特性,通过模拟计算了非对称波导层及限制层结构的光场分布,并参照模拟制作了非对称结构半导体激光器器件。采用低压金属有机物气相沉积(LP-MOCVD)生长技术,获得了低内吸收系数的高质量外延材料,通过实验数据计算得到激光器材料内吸收系数仅为0.44mm~(-1)。进而通过管芯工艺制作了条宽100μm、腔长2000μm的940 nm半导体激光器器件。25℃室温10 A直流连续(CW)测试镀膜后器件阈值电流251 mA,斜率效率1.22 W/A,最大输出功率达到9.6 W,最大光电转化效率超过70%。     

Effect of gain switching frequency on ultrashort pulse generation from laser diodes

In this work, the effects of gain switching frequency on ultrashort pulse generation are investigated using a model based on the multi-mode rate equations. In addition to the commonly used laser diode parameters, the key parameters corresponding to the different laser diode materials and structures are included in the model. Effects of some laser diode parameters, and d.c. and RF drive conditions on the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of gain switched pulses are investigated for the 1–15 GHz gain switching frequency range. Multi-pulse generation and the cut-off frequency of gain switching are also determined for this frequency range. It is found that the FWHM of pulses decrease as the RF current is increased, at a constant frequency. However, the FWHM of pulses either decrease or increase as the d.c. bias is increased, depending especially on the gain compression and gain peak. As the frequency is increased, pulse widths start to decrease or increase depending on the laser diode parameters. The FWHM of pulses for shorter cavity lasers are found to be almost insensitive to the frequency. Among the parameters affecting the multi-pulse generation and cut-off, gain compression, gain constant, and d.c. and RF current amplitudes are found to be the most effective. All calculations are also carried out using single-mode rate equations and results of multi-mode and single-mode solutions are compared. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

稳频半导体激光器的温度控制技术

设计了一种用于半导体激光器稳频的恒温控制器,在室温下2h的测试时间中,测试恒温稳定度为5mK,配合稳定度为±2μA的恒流源,半导体激光器自由运行时激光频率波动稳定在100MHz范围内。     

Narrow bandwidth operation of high-power broad-area diode laser using cascaded phase-conjugate injection locking

A broad-area laser is injection-locked by another broad-area laser that is also injection-locked by a single-mode diode laser. Two double-phase conjugate mirrors of photorefractive BaTaO₃ are used to couple the master laser beams to the first slave laser, and the first slave laser output to the second slave laser. One of the double-phase conjugate mirrors is built up with the beams from two broad-area lasers. Two slave lasers are oscillating in single longitudinal mode at 808.5 nm and the spectral width is the same as that of the master laser. Final single-mode output power from the second slave broad-area laser is 840 mW, which is limited by the power of the injection beam. This work verifies the possibility of the multi-stage cascaded injection locking of high-power diode lasers with phase-conjugate injection. Received: 18 November 1998 / Revised version: 29 January 1999 / Published online: 7 April 1999     

Analysis of the single-mode laser-diode linear model

The Volterra model that was developed of the single-mode laser-diode is used to analyze the specific effects of the various laser-diode parameters on the diode linear characteristics described by its first-order Volterra kernel. This analysis lends insight of the single-mode laser-diode model and also enables one to determine optimum parameter values for desired operating characteristics and also any required feedback for a desired frequency response.First, the manner by which the d-c injection current affects the diode gain and frequency response is discussed. This study additionally indicates that there are coupled kinetic and potential energy processes which just exist in a region about threshold. A careful study of this region could thus result in a better understanding of the threshold electron-photon dynamics involved.The effect of deviations of the laser-diode parameters from their normal values on the diode operating characteristics is then analyzed. This analysis is especially useful for the optimization of the laser-diode linear operation to minimize its sensitivity to parameter changes. Further, by combining this result with the temperature sensitivity of the various parameter values, one can analyze the temperature sensitivity of the diode linear operating characteristics. With this, a laser-diode can be designed in which the sensitivity of its operating characteristics to temperature variations is minimized.     

Single-longitudinal mode, monolithic, green solid-state laser

We present the practical realization of a monolithic single-frequency diode pumped Nd:YVO₄/YVO₄/KTP microchip laser with birefringent filter operating at 532?nm. Theoretical analysis of the single-mode operation of such a laser configuration is presented. Experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical analysis. The laser operated with output power up to 90?mW at 532?nm. The total optical efficiency (808?nm to 532?nm) was 9.5%. Power stability was at the level of ±0.75% and the long-term frequency stability was approximately 3×10^?8. The beam has a Gaussian profile and the M2 parameter was below 1.2.     

Bistable operation of a GaAs-AlGaAs diode laser coupled to an external resonator of narrow spectral bandwidth

The influence of an external dispersive resonator on the emission properties of a double heterostructure semiconductor laser operating at room temperature has been investigated. The proper design of the external resonator (frequency selectivity and efficient back-coupling of the radiation leaving the diode) demonstrates that a laser with optical feedback can show bistability and hysteresis phenomena. The dispersive bistability has its origin in the dependence of the refractive index on carrier density, temperature and optical power. Hysteresis curves have been measured by changing the injection current or by tuning the dispersive element. We have found a threshold in the injection current for the onset of the hysteretic behaviour. Moreover, a theoretical model has been established to explain the essential features of the experimental results. Hysteresis cycles for different experiments have been calculated.     

基于飞秒光频梳的压电陶瓷闭环位移控制系统

利用飞秒光频梳、外腔可调谐半导体激光器和法布里-珀罗干涉仪建立了一套压电陶瓷亚纳米级闭环位移控制系统. 将可调谐半导体激光器锁定至光频梳, 通过精确调谐光频梳的重复频率, 实现了半导体激光器在其工作频率范围内的精密调谐. 利用Pound-Drever-Hall锁定技术将带有压电陶瓷的法布里-珀罗腔锁定至半导体激光器, 进而通过频率发生系统控制压电陶瓷产生亚纳米级分辨率的位移. 实验研究发现锁定至光频梳后可调谐半导体激光器1 s的Allan标准偏差为1.68×10^-12, 将其在30.9496 GHz范围内进行连续闭环调谐, 可获得压电陶瓷的位移行程约为4.8 μm; 以3.75 Hz的步长扫描光频梳的重复频率, 实现了压电陶瓷的450 pm闭环位移分辨率并测定了压电陶瓷的磁滞特性曲线. 该系统不存在非线性测量误差, 且激光频率及压电陶瓷位移均溯源至铷钟频率源. 关键词： 光频梳 压电陶瓷 法布里-珀罗腔 可调谐半导体激光器