Miniature erbium:ytterbium fiber Fabry-Perot multiwavelength lasers

We demonstrate stable simultaneous lasing of up to 29 wavelengths in miniature 1- and 2-mm-long Er³⁺:Yb³⁺ fiber Fabry-Perot lasers. The wavelengths are separated by 0.8 (100 GHz) and 0.4 nm (50 GHz), respectively, corresponding to the free spectral range of the laser cavity. The number of lasing wavelengths and the power stability of the individual modes are greatly enhanced by cooling the laser in liquid nitrogen (77 K). The polarization modes and linewidth of each wavelength are measured with high resolution by heterodyning with a local oscillator. The homogeneous linewidth of the Er³⁺:Yb ³⁺ fiber at 77 K is determined to be ~0.5 nm, from spectral-hole-burning measurements, which accounts for the generation of a stable multiwavelength lasing comb with wavelength separations of 0.4 nm     

Fiber-Laser-Pumped Er:YAG Lasers

Hybrid fiber-laser-pumped solid-state lasers exploit high-power cladding-pumped fiber lasers for direct (in-band) pumping of a crystal-based solid-state laser to reduce heating in the laser crystal, and hence allow scaling to higher power in both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed modes of operation. In this paper, we briefly review the attractions of the hybrid laser approach for generation of output in the ~ 1.6 mum wavelength regime and consider the main design considerations for efficient operation of hybrid lasers based on Er:YAG in both CW and pulsed modes of operation. Examples of hybrid Er:YAG lasers, pumped by Er,Yb codoped fiber lasers at 1532 nm, with CW output powers up to 60 W at 1645 nm and 31 W at 1617 nm and slope efficiencies of 80% and 47% with respect to incident pump power, respectively, are described. In Q-switched mode of operation, pulse energies up to 30.5 mJ were obtained, limited by coating damage. Finally, the prospects for further increase in output power and improvement in overall performance in CW and Q-switched modes of operation will be discussed.     

Narrow linewidth, tunable Tm3+-doped fluoride fiberlaser for optical-based hydrocarbon gas sensing

Operation of an efficient continuous-wave (CW) thulium-doped fiber laser emitting at wavelength, λ=2.31 μm is reported. The fiber laser parameters are optimized with a view to ultimately producing a compact and efficient laser source for optical absorption based gas sensing. A number of fiber laser configurations are investigated to assess their suitability for narrow linewidth, tunable fiber laser operation emitting around λ=2.3 μm, which is a wavelength region of significant importance for hydrocarbon gas monitoring. Tuning ranges of 140 nm and linewidths of less than 210 MHz have been demonstrated with lasers with bulk external tuning grating. Preliminary hydrocarbon gas sensing investigation confirm the potential of this source for detection of ppb gas concentrations     

Power Scaling of Ytterbium-doped Fiber Superfluorescent Sources

Power scaling of ytterbium-doped fiber superfluorescent sources based on single-stage and two-stage cladding-pumped fiber configurations is reported. For the single-stage configuration, a novel fiber-end termination scheme was employed to suppress laser oscillation in combination with a simple all-fiber scheme for achieving a predominantly single-ended output. The fiber was cladding-pumped by a diode stack at 976 nm and yielded ~62 W of single-ended amplified spontaneous emission output for 119 W of launched pump power, limited by the onset of parasitic lasing. At pump powers in excess of 40 W, the slope efficiency with respect to the launched pump power was 67%. The emission spectrum spanned the wavelength range from 1030 to 1100 nm and the bandwidth (FWHM) was 12 nm. Scaling to higher power levels was demonstrated using a two-stage cladding-pumped fiber configuration comprising of a low-power fiber superfluorescent seed source and a high-power amplifier. The two-stage source yielded 122 W of amplified spontaneous emission output (limited by available pump power) in a beam with M² ap 2.1. The slope efficiency for the amplifier with respect to the launched pump power was 77%. The prospects for further improvement in performance and output power are considered.     

Monolithic integration via a universal damage enhanced quantum-wellintermixing technique

A novel technique for quantum-well intermixing is demonstrated, which has proven a reliable means for obtaining postgrowth shifts in the band edge of a wide range of III-V material systems. The technique relies upon the generation of point defects via plasma induced damage during the deposition of sputtered SiO₂, and provides a simple and reliable process for the fabrication of both wavelength tuned lasers and monolithically integrated devices. Wavelength tuned broad area oxide stripe lasers are demonstrated in InGaAs-InAlGaAs, InGaAs-InGaAsP, and GaInP-AlGaInP quantum well systems, and it is shown that low absorption losses are obtained after intermixing. Oxide stripe lasers with integrated slab waveguides have also enabled the production of a narrow single lobed far field (3°) pattern in both InGaAs-InAlGaAs, and GaInP-AlGaInP devices. Extended cavity ridge waveguide lasers operating at 1.5 μm are demonstrated with low loss (α=4.1 cm^-1) waveguides, and it is shown that this loss is limited only by free carrier absorption in waveguide cladding layers. In addition, the operation of intermixed multimode interference couplers is demonstrated, where four GaAs-AlGaAs laser amplifiers are monolithically integrated to produce high output powers of 180 mW in a single fundamental mode. The results illustrate that the technique can routinely be used to fabricate low-loss optical interconnects and offers a very promising route toward photonic integration     

Dual-Grating Spectral Beam Combination of High-Power Fiber Lasers

We describe a dual-grating spectral beam combination (SBC) system to combine multiple high-power fiber laser outputs while maintaining near-diffraction-limited beam quality. The two gratings are parallel in a grating rhomb configuration, with input and output beams that are parallel but shifted with wavelength, rather than the typical angular dispersion of a single grating. The resulting advantage of the dual-grating SBC over other beam combination systems is the relaxation of the linewidth requirement. We combined two fiber lasers with output powers of 115 W each and linewidths of about 0.15 nm ( ~40 GHz) to produce a combined beam of 190 W power with near-diffraction-limited beam quality (M ² ~ 1.18).     

Monolithically integrated multiwavelength sampled grating DBRlasers for dense WDM applications

For accurate control of the channel spacing in fabricating multiwavelength laser arrays or discrete multicolor lasers, we proposed a novel approach that exploits sampled grating distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors to vary the laser wave length across the wafer. This approach can realize a set of lasers with a wavelength spacing that meets the ITU recommendations for dense wavelength-division multiplexing systems and a wavelength range that can cover up to 40 nm or more. The wavelength variation across an array is achieved by changing the sampling periods of the DBR mirrors from laser to laser. The accuracy on the channel spacing of sampled grating DBR laser arrays was shown to be the same as that of conventional distributed feedback or DBR laser arrays, but their wavelengths can be better controlled for the gratings are fabricated with single holographic exposure. Arrays of 21 lasers have been successfully fabricated and have around 0.8-nm wavelength spacing with a simple tuning mechanism     

Theoretical analysis of diffused quantum-well lasers and optical amplifiers

Diffused quantum-well (QW) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and optical amplifiers will be theoretically analyzed in this paper. For DFB lasers, a design rule will be proposed and the validity of the design rule will be discussed with respect to changes in the injected carrier density. The range of grating period, which can be used in the design, is discussed. As a consequence, the maximum tuning range of the emission wavelength can be estimated without involving the time-consuming self-consistent simulation. The features of polarization independence of optical amplifiers achieved by using diffused QWs are also discussed. Our theoretical results successfully explain why polarization independence can achieve in the long-wavelength tail of the modal gain and absorption coefficient but not at photon energies above the transition edge. This explanation applies to other tensile-strained QWs for polarization-independent applications. The understanding is crucial for optimizing polarization-independent devices. To conclude, our analysis of the diffused QW optical devices demonstrates that QW intermixing technology is a practical candidate for not only realizing monolithic photonic integrated circuit, but also enhancing optical device performance.     

Progress in GaN-based quantum dots for optoelectronics applications

Our recent progress in GaN-based quantum dots (QDs) for optoelectronics application is discussed. First, we discussed an impact of the use of GaN-based QDs on semiconductor lasers, showing theoretically that reduction of threshold current by using the QDs in GaN-based lasers is much more effective compared to those in GaAs-based or InP-based lasers. Then discussed are our growth technology including self-assembling growth of InGaN QDs on sapphire substrates by atmospheric-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Using the self-assembling growth technique, we have succeeded in obtaining lasing action in an edge-emitting laser structure with the InGaN QDs embedded in the active layer under optical excitation with the emission wavelength of 410 nm. Toward UV light wavelength emission, we have recently established self-assembled GaN QDs of high quality and high density under very low V-III ratio. We clearly observed two photoluminescence peaks from both the QDs and the wetting layer at room temperature, which clearly shows the nanostructures are formed with the Stranski-Krastanow growth mode.     

一种提高SO2和NOx分析仪稳定性与准确度的方法

针对基于差分吸收光谱（DOAS）技术的烟气分析仪,其核心部件光谱仪受环境温度变化和振动影响,会出现波长漂移。设计一种光谱仪波长快速在线校准方法,利用SO₂气体在202~214 nm和280~310 nm波段上的特征吸收峰,根据波峰、波谷与像素点的映射关系,进行三阶拟合,从而实现对光谱仪输出波长进行快速在线校准。研究结果表明,采用波长快速校准后,在202~214 nm和280~310 nm两个吸收波段上波长漂移量降低97.7%,测量误差可控制在2%以内,极大地提高了烟气分析仪的稳定性和测量准确度。     

Radiation from a dipole embedded in a dielectric slab

A unified analytical treatment of the radiation from an electric dipole of arbitrary orientation embedded at an arbitrary location within a symmetrically clad dielectric slab is presented. Both the emission into three-dimensional (3-D) radiation modes, corresponding to emission within the critical angle escape cone within the dielectric slab, and into the two-dimensional (2-D) waveguide modes are evaluated from a single calculation. The model is valid for arbitrary dielectric contrast between the slab and the cladding. The mathematical approach uses well-known complex analysis techniques: the 3-D radiation is described by a steepest descents integration around branch cuts while the 2-D waveguide modes correspond to simple poles. The division of the radiated power between the 3-D and 2-D modes is evaluated across the entire range from small dielectric contrast appropriate to diode lasers (≲1,1) to the very large dielectric contrast of free-standing semiconductor slabs (~12-19). Both enhancement and suppression, depending on position, slab width, dielectric contrast, and wavelength, of the total radiated power in comparison with that in an unbounded dielectric-medium are found for slab widths on the order of a wavelength with a maximum enhancement of ~30% for these one-dimensional Fabry-Perot structures. For thicker slabs the total radiation is almost constant and equal to that in the unbounded medium for low dielectric contrast while still exhibiting some modulation as increasing thickness allows additional waveguide modes     

The development of X-ray free-electron lasers

We review and discuss the theoretical and experimental work that has led to the development of short wavelength free-electron lasers operating as single pass amplifiers, starting from the spontaneous undulator radiation, in the self amplified spontaneous emission mode. This work has led to several projects to build this type of free-electron lasers operating at a wavelength of about 0.1 nm, producing coherent X-ray pulses with an unprecedented brilliance and peak power, and pulse length in the femtosecond range. One such project, the LCLS, is presently under construction and is expected to be operational in 2008.     

Resonators and materials for organic lasers based on energytransfer

Optically pumped lasers have been fabricated with organic/polymeric materials capable of charge transport. The active materials employed are doped films with small molecule hosts and dye, oligomer, and conjugated polymer emitters. In these materials, the excited states created in the host are transferred nonradiatively to the guest molecules which are the emitters. This energy transfer results in very low absorption losses at the emission wavelength and relatively low-threshold powers for the onset of stimulated emission. Such gain media have been successfully included in many types of resonators including whispering-gallery mode, photonic bandgap, and distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) based resonators. A number of novel patterning and fabrication procedures have been developed for organic-based lasers     

Widely tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser covering both C-bandand L-band

We demonstrate a widely tunable erbium-doped fiber (EDF) ring laser covering both the conventional wavelength band (C-band) and the long wavelength band (L-band). It features a wide tunable range, high output power, low-coherent, and depolarized output. A tunable range over 80 nm (1520-1600 nm) has been achieved by optimizing the length of the EDF and by using an intracavity fiber Fabry-Perot (FFP) filter     

High Peak Power Pulse Amplification in Large-Core Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifiers

High peak power fiber lasers are important for a variety of applications ranging from material processing and remote sensing to laser-plasma produced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) generation. These applications require high peak powers in the megawatt range, < 1-10-ns pulse durations and high average powers in preferably diffraction-limited beams. In this paper, we review our work on high peak power pulse generation using large- mode-area (LMA) Yb-doped fibers with very large cores. We report achieving up to > 5-MW peak power with subnanosecond pulses, the highest peak power achieved so far from a fiber laser. Use of a variety of core sizes between 65 and 200 mum has been explored and it has been shown that for core sizes as large as 80 mum, a good output beam quality of M² ~ 1.3 can be maintained. This corresponds to the largest ever demonstrated mode area (2750 mum²) of a conventional LMA fiber with nearly diffraction-limited output. We also demonstrate average-power scaling of megawatt peak power pulses of up to ~90 W.     

Wavelength-swept fiber laser with frequency shifted feedback andresonantly swept intra-cavity acoustooptic tunable filter

This paper concerns a wavelength-swept fiber laser (WSFL) incorporating frequency shifted feedback and an intracavity passband filter, in which the wavelength of the modeless output is linearly, continuously and repeatedly tuned (in time) over a given range by modulation of the filter peak wavelength and filter strength. We show both numerically and experimentally that amplifier noise plays a key role in determining the operation of frequency-shifted fiber laser systems and that a “noisy” amplifier can be used to suppress the natural tendency of such lasers to pulse, allowing for continuous wave, modeless operation. Furthermore, we show that significant narrowing of a WSFL instantaneous swept linewidth can be obtained if the filter peak transmission wavelength is resonantly swept so as to follow the wavelength shift per pass due to the acoustooptic frequency shift. Using these ideas we go on to demonstrate and characterize a high-power diode-driven Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ WSFL incorporating a bulk-optic acoustooptic tunable filter (AOTF). Linewidths as narrow as 9 GHz, sweep ranges up to 38 nm and output powers as high as 100 mW are obtained. Furthermore, we demonstrate the generation of user definable average spectral output by synchronous modulation of the filter strength and multiwavelength pulsed output at higher sweep rates. Excellent agreement between the experimental results and those of the numerical modeling is obtained. Our simulations show that reduced linewidth (<0.02 nm) and improved scan linearity should be readily achievable with realistic system improvements. We believe such sources to be of considerable physical and practical interest, with applications ranging from sensor array monitoring and device characterization through to low-coherence interferometry     

Miniaturization and Power Scaling of Fundamental Mode Optically Pumped Semiconductor Lasers

We demonstrate that TEM₀₀ mode optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSLs) may be scaled to tens of watts in the visible wavelength range using laser cavities an order of magnitude smaller than those of conventional solid-state lasers. In particular, we show that the output power may be scaled linearly by increasing the number of optically pumped semiconductor (OPS) devices and derive a unique solution for a dynamically stable resonator that is independent of the physical cavity length and internal design. This enables miniaturization of high-power OPS lasers to ~1 cm footprints without compromising many resonator performance metrics. The results are applied to demonstrate a 15-mm footprint cavity producing 7.3-W output at 486 nm, and a cavity with two OPS chips with 24-W output at 561 nm. In addition, we show that efficient TEM₀₀ mode performance may be realized using free-space-coupled, high-power laser diode bars. Single-frequency operation is also demonstrated, and an rms noise level less than 0.01% is achieved.     

High-performance 1200-nm InGaAs and 1300-nm InGaAsN quantum-well lasers by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

In this paper, we present the characteristics of high-performance strain-compensated MOCVD-grown 1200-nm InGaAs and 1300-nm InGaAsN quantum-well (QW) lasers using AsH/sub 3/ and U-Dimethylhydrazine as the group V precursors. The design of the InGaAsN QW active region utilizes an In-content of approximately 40%, which requires only approximately 0.5% N-content to realize emission wavelengths up to 1315-nm. Threshold current densities of only 65-90 A/cm/sup 2/ were realized for InGaAs QW lasers, with emission wavelength of 1170-1233 nm. Room-temperature threshold and transparency current densities of 210 and 75-80 A/cm/sup 2/, respectively, have been realized for InGaAsN QW lasers with emission wavelength of 1300-nm. Despite the utilization of the highly-strained InGaAsN QW, double-QW lasers have been realized with excellent lasing performance.     

Tunable VCSEL

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are now key optical sources in optical communications. Their main application is currently in local area networks using multimode optical fibers. VCSELs are also being rapidly commercialized for single-mode fiber metropolitan area and wide area network applications. The advantages of VCSEL include simpler fiber coupling, easier packaging and testing, and the ability to be fabricated in arrays. In addition, VCSELs have an inherent single-wavelength structure that is well suited for wavelength engineering. All these advantages promise to lead to cost-effective wavelength-tunable lasers, which are essential for the future intelligent, all-optical networks. The author reviews the advances on wavelength-tunable VCSELs. She summarizes some of the early breakthroughs in wavelength engineering of VCSELs and then concentrates on the designs and properties of micromechanical tunable VCSEL     

不同波长光激发下氧化锌纳米线的发光特性研究

用汽相传输法制备了氧化锌(ZnO)纳米线,并在室温条件下,测量了在不同波长光的激发下,样品的光致发光谱.实验结果表明,当用325 nm的光激发ZnO纳米线时,观察到峰值波长约为392 nm的紫光峰峰值强度强,峰值波长约为445 nm的蓝光峰峰值强度较弱和峰值波长约为486 nm的蓝绿光峰峰值强度弱;当增加激发光波长到380 nm时,发射光谱变成峰值波长约为520 nm的半高宽较宽、峰值强度较强的带状光谱.同时对发光峰产生的机理进行了分析.