波导结构对905 nm隧道结级联半导体激光器的光束质量和功率的影响

近年来,激光雷达应用对探测距离和灵敏度提出了更高的要求。905 nm半导体激光器作为其理想光源也亟待提升峰值功率与光束质量。在这个背景下,基于非对称大光腔结构研究了不同增益区类型和波导结构对905 nm隧道结脉冲半导体激光器的光束质量和功率效率的影响。通过优化增益区类型和波导结构降低了体电阻和内损耗;增强了限制载流子泄露的能力,提高了器件在高电流下工作的峰值功率和电光效率;通过提高高阶模对基模的阈值增益比值,抑制高阶模式激射,降低了远场发散角。在此基础上,研制的800 μm腔长、200 μm条宽的四有源区半导体激光器在100 ns脉冲宽度、1 kHz重复频率的脉冲功率测试中,41.6 A的脉冲电流强度下实现了峰值功率输出177 W;垂直于PN结方向单模激射,远场发散角半高全宽为24.3°。     

Single-mode blue-violet laser diodes with low beam divergence and high COD level

We demonstrate GaN-based high-power single transverse-mode laser diodes (LDs) emitting at 405 nm. LD structures are designed to exhibit a high level of catastrophic optical damage and small beam divergence angle. By the control of refractive index profiles, we achieved a vertical beam divergence angle of as low as 17.5/spl deg/ and maximum output power of as high as 470 mW under continuous-wave operation condition. In addition, nearly fundamental transverse-mode operation is demonstrated up to 500-mW pulsed output power by far-field investigation.     

Leaky optical fibre for large mode area singlemode operation

A novel optical fibre structure is introduced for large mode area singlemode operation. The fibre consists of a cladding index profile that increases monotonically in the radial direction. It is shown that the fibre can introduce exceedingly high leakage losses to the high-order modes, while maintaining a low loss to the fundamental mode. Numerical results are presented for power-law index profiles.     

High-power single-mode antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide-type vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) techniques are employed in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) to achieve high-power single-mode emission. Using the effective-index method and fiber mode approximation, the cold-cavity lateral modal behavior for the circular shaped ARROW VCSEL demonstrates significant reduction of radiation loss from that of a single antiguide, while maintaining strong discrimination against high-order modes. The circular-waveguide is created by selective chemical etching and two-step metal-organic chemical vapor deposition growth, with proton implantation used to confine the current injection to the low-index core region. A single-mode CW power of 7.1 mW has been achieved from an 8 /spl mu/m diameter ARROW device (index step /spl Delta/n = 0.05, emission at /spl lambda//sub 0/ = 980 nm) with a far-field FWHM of 10/spl deg/. Larger aperture (12 /spl mu/m) devices exhibit multimode operation at lower drive currents with a maximum single-mode continuous-wave output power of 4.3 mW.     

Semiconductor laser with tapered-rib adiabatic-following fiber coupler for expanded output-mode diameter

A new expanded-mode AlGaAs diode laser with reduced far-field divergence and 0.9 dB single-mode optical fiber coupling loss is demonstrated. This new laser achieves a two-dimensional (2-D) expansion of the fundamental output mode with a rib waveguide tapered in only one dimension. Stable fundamental-mode operation with a narrow, 5.7/spl deg/ by 7.40 full-width-at-half-maximum far-field divergence is observed well above lasing threshold. Tapered waveguide dimensions are compatible with conventional optical lithographic techniques, making this device suitable for mass production.     

Porous waveguide facilitated low divergence quantum cascade laser

A quantum cascade laser with a porous waveguide structure emitting at 4.5μm is reported.A branchlike porous structure filled with metal material was fabricated on both sides of the laser ridge by an electrochemical etching process.In contrast to the common ridge waveguide laser,devices with a porous structure give rather better beam quality.Utilizing this porous structure as a high-order mode absorber,the device exhibited fundamental transverse mode emission with a nearly diffraction limited far-field beam divergence angle of 4.9°.     

Single transverse mode 850nm GaAs/AlGaAs lasers with narrow beam divergence

GaAs/AlGaAs 850 nm range lasers based on a longitudinal photonic bandgap crystal waveguide show narrow vertical far-field pattern. Vertical and lateral beam divergence with FWHM below 10deg and 5deg, respectively, is demonstrated for 4 mum stripe width, being independent on injection current. Excellent beam quality with M² =1.4, low internal losses of 1.4 cm^-1 and high differential quantum efficiency of 83% are observed     

Single high-order transverse mode surface-emitting laser with controlled far-field pattern

Single transverse mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with high output power are important for high-speed data links, optical recording, laser processing, and so on. We demonstrate a single high-order transverse mode VCSEL with narrow trenches formed on its top surface by using a focused ion beam. The formation of four straight cross trenches resulted in the selection of a stable LP/sub 41/ mode oscillation. A large far-field angle of the LP/sub 41/ mode, which causes a low coupling efficiency even with a multimode fiber, was drastically reduced by loading a phase shift layer. A single-lobe far-field pattern with low scattering loss was realized by loading a spatial phase shift of SiO/sub 2/. We evaluated a coupling efficiency with a single-mode fiber including its alignment tolerance. The controlled far-field pattern enables lens-free direct coupling with a single-mode fiber even for large active-area VCSELs.     

High brightness single-mode ridge laser utilizing buried heterostructure defined by quantum-well intermixing

The authors demonstrate a novel high brightness single-lateral mode ridge laser using quantum well intermixing to form a buried heterostructure. Increased discrimination between the fundamental and higher order modes can be achieved using the buried heterostructure to reduce the width of the gain section, enhancing fundamental mode operation. This allows the ridge width to be increased while maintaining fundamental mode operation, hence reducing the optical intensity at the facet and increasing the optical power before mirror degradation. Standard and novel buried heterostructure ridge lasers of 5-/spl mu/m width are compared; far-field beam profiles clearly show improved modal stability for the novel structure.     

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with high-power and single-spot far-field distributions at 850-nm wavelength by use of petal-shaped light-emitting apertures

In this letter, we demonstrate a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with a petal-shaped light-emitting aperture, which is realized by the Zn-diffusion technique, at a wavelength of 850 nm. The demonstrated device behaves like a two-dimensional VCSEL array and each light-emitting unit can have high coherence of in-phase lasing to form a near fundamental supermode emission. The measured far-field distributions of such a device exhibit single-lobe (spot), high-power (>7.5 mW), and narrow divergence angle (/spl sim/6/spl deg/) performance under a wide range of bias current. The ratio of in-phase lasing mode to total lasing modes, which include isolated single mode, in-phase, and out-of-phase modes, has also been analyzed by the measured far-field distributions and the theoretically calculated patterns.     

Output coupling for closely confined Pb1-xSnxTe double-heterostructure lasers

The output coupling of an idealized, symmetric model of a double-heterostructure (DH) laser is analyzed theoretically using parameters suitable to Pb1-xSnxTe. For the TEOmode incident at the laser mirror and for thin optical guiding regions such that only the TEO, TE1, TMO, and TM1modes may propagate, an exact formulation of the coupling problem is obtained including mode coupling at the mirror into the continuum of unguided radiation modes. Using this formulation, the power reflection and transmission coefficients, the fraction of incident power coupled into the radiation modes, the mirror illumination, and the far-field pattern are calculated for typical parameters. Significant mode coupling can occur, limiting the maximum external efficiency of such lasers. This and other potentially undesirable characteristics resulting from close optical confinement, such as large output beam divergence, must be considered in design criteria for DH structures in this alloy system.     

半导体侧面抽运板条激光器光束质量优化

为了优化高功率板条激光器的光束质量, 采用提高单侧基模光束的尺寸来限制腔内部分高阶模式振荡的方法, 针对半导体侧面抽运板条激光器, 测量了激光器在抽运状态下水平和竖直方向热焦距, 建立了热透镜等效模型, 并以平-平腔为参考, 设计了水平和竖直方向单侧基模尺寸均会扩大的平-凹腔。验证了对于激光介质截面尺寸固定的板条激光器, 扩大单侧基模尺寸可以限制高阶模式从而优化光束质量, 并提出了进一步优化板条激光器性能的研究方法。结果表明, 当平-凹腔的腔长为370mm时, 输出功率为59.9W, 水平方向M2因子由平-平腔的115.6显著优化至32.9, 竖直方向M2因子由116.4显著优化为60.9。该研究对于板条激光器获得高质量输出及相关应用有实际意义。     

Theoretical investigation on semiconductor lasers with passivewaveguides

Semiconductor lasers with vertically integrated passive waveguides are theoretically studied using the coupled mode theory and exact calculation. Formulas for the threshold current density and the far-field patterns are derived. The physical concepts of the modulation of the beam divergence by passive waveguides are given. The exact calculated results show that the beam divergence can be greatly improved by paying a price of only a slight increase of the threshold current density. The operation mode selection is discussed. Attention is also paid to the appearance of side lobes for very narrow far-field patterns. Discussions are given for device design     

Injection behavior and modeling of 100 mW broad area diode lasers

The output from a single-frequency, narrow-linewidth GaAlAs diode laser was injected into a 100-mW broad-area diode laser. The injected laser emitted in a single longitudinal mode with up to 80 mW in a single, diffraction-limited, 0.5° FWHM far-field lobe. The angle of the far-field lobe steered with injection frequency and broad-area laser bias current, displaying behavior similar to that observed with injected gain-guided laser arrays. A Fabry-Perot amplifier model which explains the injection behavior in terms of Gaussian beam propagation in a large optical cavity is proposed. The model provides criteria for optimizing locking bandwidth, beam steering, and injection efficiency     

Selection and modulation of high-order transverse modes invertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

A theoretical proposal to double the pulse repetition frequency by alternating current modulation of two orthogonal high-order transverse modes of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) is presented. Static and dynamic characteristics of weakly index-guided VCSELs in a multitransverse mode regime are analyzed. An efficient model that takes into account all the transverse modes supported by the waveguide is developed. Mode partition noise in a current modulated VCSEL is studied, taking into account the azimuthal degree of freedom. Different transverse modes can be excited with a probability that is numerically calculated. For high injection currents, modes that are not favored in the steady state can be excited with higher probability. The excitation probability is similar for azimuthally orthogonal modes. This symmetry can be broken by selecting a particular high-order transverse mode by using azimuthal-dependent current profiling. This selection can be achieved over current ranges as wide as ten times the threshold current. Current modulation of this transverse mode is then analyzed. Alternate current modulation of two orthogonal high-order transverse modes is also studied. Alternating modulation of these modes can double the pulse repetition frequency obtained by modulating just one high-order transverse mode, without increasing injected current density levels. This current-induced spatial switching leads to high-frequency beam steering in the laser azimuthal direction     

Lateral-mode analysis of narrow-stripe semiconductor lasers with acylindrically concave end facet

A beam-propagation method is used to investigate numerically the lateral-mode characteristics of GaAlAs semiconductor lasers having a cylindrically concave facet at one end. Various degrees of index guiding have been considered. Simulations were made for both below- and above-threshold regimes. As expected, the numerical results show that the optical beam divergence parallel to the junction plane can be significantly reduced. In addition, this far-field narrowing is accompanied by lower threshold currents. However, for values of the radius of curvature of the concave facet lying in some specific ranges, the losses of the fundamental lateral mode are higher than that calculated for conventional lasers, and the corresponding eigenvalue shows nonmonotonic variations as the injection current is increased. This phenomenon is due to an enhancement of the index antiguiding over the gain-guiding mechanism     

Single-Lobe Single-Wavelength Lasing in Ultrabroad-Area Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers Based on the Integrated Filter Concept

We have studied broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers grown in the antiwaveguiding approach (AVCSELs). The AVCSEL-type devices were fabricated in the ridge stripe geometry with openings in the top contact layer. Surface lasing was realized and evaluated for the devices with and without the integrated absorber section, acting as a selective filter for the emission modes propagating at finite tilt angle with respect to the normal to the surface (F-AVCSEL). It was found that the conventional AVCSEL device lases in high-order excited modes, tilted with respect to the normal to the surface, while lower order modes evolve at higher current densities causing a dramatic broadening of the emission spectrum. On the contrary, the F-AVCSEL emission is composed of a single spectral feature, which remains hardly affected up to the highest current densities >10 kA/cm². The far-field pattern is composed of a single zero-angle lobe with a beam divergence defined by the size of the opening in the top contact. No spectral features due to parasitic high-order modes were observed. The Gaussian-type single-wavelength surface-emitting lasing with an output power of 70 mW was realized in all-epitaxial wavelength-selective filter concept.     

High-power 660-nm GaInP-AlGaInP laser diodes with low vertical beam divergence angles

We present 660-nm GaInP-AlGaInP ridge multiple-quantum-well laser diodes (LDs) reliably operating at high output power over 200 mW at 70/spl deg/C not showing unstable higher order lateral modes owing to an adoption of a dry etching method instead of a conventional chemical wet etching for realizing steep ridge sidewalls. Employing an optimized two-step n-cladding layer LDs produced very narrow horizontal and vertical beam divergence angles of 8.6/spl deg/ and 15.3/spl deg/, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this vertical beam divergence angle is the lowest value ever reported in high-power 660-nm LDs operating over 200 mW and is expected to play an important role in minimizing the coupling loss between LD and passive optical components in digital versatile disc system.     

894 nm高温工作氧化限制型基横模VCSEL研究

针对芯片原子钟（铯）用激光光源系统对垂直腔面发射激光器（VCSEL）模式及工作温度的需求,研制出可以高温工作的氧化限制型基横模 894.6 nm VCSEL。通过缩小VCSEL氧化孔直径至3 μm,限制VCSEL高阶横模激射,保证器件基横模低阈值电流工作。通过常温下腔模与材料增益失谐12 nm 的结构设计,使器件能够在50~65 ℃ 高温时,激射波长对准原子能级且工作模式稳定。实验所制备的VCSEL在工作温度为55 ℃、注入电流1.8 mA 时,激射波长达到 894.6 nm,边模抑制比（SMSR）大于35 dB,基横模功率为0.75 mW,具有11.4°的远场发射角。当温度为65 ℃时,器件SMSR大于25 dB,基横模功率大于0.1 mW。该高温基横模工作的VCSEL在芯片原子钟中具有重要的应用前景。     

Spatial mode structure of index-guided broad-area quantum-welllasers

The spatial mode characteristics of index-guided ridge-waveguide broad-area (BA) quantum-well lasers grown by organometallic chemical vapor deposition were investigated experimentally. The index-guided BA lasers lase in a high-order lateral mode, and thus emit a double-lobed far-field pattern. This is significantly different from their gain-guided counterparts, which lase in the fundamental mode. For BA lasers with the same width and made on the same or similar material, the index-guided lasers have lower threshold currents, higher quantum efficiencies, and better linearity in the light versus current characteristics. It is observed that the order of the dominant high-order lateral-mode increased with increasing laser width or effective index step of the laser waveguide. In addition, it is found that the mechanism for degradation in the spatial coherence at high pumping levels is the onset of higher order lateral modes