Stress effect for polarisation control of surface emitting lasers

To control the electric polarisation of output light in surface emitting (SE) lasers, the stress effect on the resonance model of SE lasers with an elliptical holed region is investigated. For the first time, polarisation switching by external stress has been observed and the relation between the polarisation characteristics and the structural dependence on stress clarified.<>     

High fibre coupled output power 37 nm tunable laser module using matrix DFB laser

The thermally-controlled laser module, integrating 12 distributed feedback (DFB) lasers in the form of a 2/spl times/6 matrix to realise both high output power and wide wavelength tunability, has been fabricated. The module has shown excellent characteristics, such as high fibre coupled power over 30 mW and tunability over 37 nm.     

Lasing characteristics of low-threshold oxide confinementInGaAs-GaAlAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Some lasing characteristics of index-guided InGaAs-GaAlAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL's) with a native oxide confinement structure, which produced a low threshold current of 70 μA, are presented. It was found that nonradiative recombination was reduced and the estimated surface recombination velocity was almost negligible. The oxidation process was uniform to produce low threshold devices while the oxidation rate was dependent on the doping or composition of DBR's     

Excess intensity noise originated from polarization fluctuation invertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We have observed an excess-intensity noise that is attributed to polarization fluctuations of InGaAs-GaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). It was observed, for the first time, that the intensity noise increased remarkably by the polarization fluctuation even when the single transverse mode operation was maintained. This result indicates that it is necessary to control the polarization state of VCSELs as well as control the transverse modes for low-noise operations     

Detailed investigation on reliability of wavelength-monitor-integrated fixed and tunable DFB laser diode modules

A highly reliable integration of a wavelength monitor (WM) in an industry standard 14-pin butterfly package has been successfully achieved by using soldering and YAG welding techniques. Mechanical integrity and endurance tests for fixed and tunable distributed-feedback (DFB) laser diode modules (LDMs) were performed according to an extended Telcordia GR-468-CORE in order to appreciate the fixtures of the WM part composed of a prism, a Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot etalon, power, and WM photodiodes. Wavelength and a fiber output power were evaluated as a function of duration time for each test. Incident light angles change against an etalon and an optical coupling deviates due to the separation between a laser diode part and a WM part for tunable DFB LDMs. The two occurrences have a profound influence on wavelength drifts. It was found that the wavelength drifts were less than /spl plusmn/5 pm under mechanical and thermal stresses for both types of DFB LDMs. It was also confirmed that the coated and mounted etalon itself was also highly reliable under thermal stresses. These results show that the WM-integrated fixed and tunable DFB LDMs were fully applicable to next-generation dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) systems of 50- and 25-GHz channel spacing.     

1.3-μm InAsP n-type modulation-doped MQW lasers grown bygas-source molecular beam epitaxy

The effect of n-type modulation doping as well as growth temperature on the threshold current density of 1.3-μm InAsP strained multiple-quantum-well (MQW) lasers grown by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE) was investigated for the first time. We have obtained threshold current density as low as 250 A/cm² for 1200-μm long devices. The threshold current density per well for infinite cavity length J_th/N_w∞ of 57 A/cm² was obtained for the optimum n-doping density (N_D=1×10¹⁸ cm^-3) and the optimum growth temperature (515°C for InP and 455°C for the SCH-MQW region), which is about 30% reduction as compared with that of undoped MQW lasers. A very low continuous-wave threshold current of 0.9 mA have been obtained at room temperature, which is the lowest ever reported for long-wavelength lasers using n-type modulation doping, and the lowest results grown by all kinds of MBE in the long-wavelength region. The differential gain was estimated by the measurement of relative intensity noise. No significant reduction of differential gain was observed for n-type MD-MQW lasers as compared with undoped MQW lasers. The carrier lifetime was also reduced by about 33% by using n-type MD-MQW lasers. Both reduction of the threshold current and the carrier lifetime lead to the reduction of the turn-on delay time by about 30%. The 1.3-μm InAsP strained MQW lasers using n-type modulation doping with very low power consumption and small turn-on delay is very attractive for laser array application in high-density parallel optical interconnection systems     

Proteomic approach toward personalized sarcoma treatment: Lessons from prognostic biomarker discovery in gastrointestinal stromal tumor

Sarcomas range from curable tumors to those causing death via metastasis and recurrence. Thus, there is an urgent need for biomarker identification in order to assess the degree of malignancy, predict prognosis, and evaluate possible therapies. Various proteomic approaches and different clinical materials have been used to this end, and candidate biomarkers have been reported for the different types of sarcomas. However, the sample size used in these biomarker studies was generally insufficient, and thus far, no biomarker has been proved useful in clinics. Given that sarcomas are rare, biomarker validation in this setting is more challenging than in other malignancies. In gastrointestinal stromal tumor, adjuvant therapy has proven to be effective. However, only 40% patients experience metastasis after curative surgery alone, and the rest of the patients may not need adjuvant therapy. Using a proteomic approach, we identified pfetin (potassium channel tetramerization domain containing 12, KCTD 12) as a novel prognostic biomarker for sarcoma, and immunohistochemically confirmed its clinical usefulness by a multiinstitutional validation study. Here, we describe our experience and discuss the critical points in the discovery of this biomarker.     

Engineered polarization control of GaAs/AlGaAs surface-emittinglasers by anisotropic stress from elliptical etched substrate hole

The engineered polarization control of surface emitting (SE) lasers, based on the observed evidence of the polarization determination, is reported. Thermally stressed epitaxial layers including an active region are made anisotropic by an elliptically etched substrate structure. This stress causes an anisotropy in optical gain of the active region. The polarization control has been demonstrated with about 80% reproducibility in etched-well-type surface emitting (SE) lasers by employing a thick gold film or a polyimide as a stress-enhancing material     

Wavelength monitor integrated laser modules for 25-GHz-spacing tunable applications

Integration of 25-GHz-spacing wavelength monitors into industry standard butterfly laser modules are successfully achieved through the use of a unique optics. The 2-thermoelectric cooler (TEC) design enables independent temperature control of the laser diode and the wavelength monitor, hence eliminating the temperature dependence of the etalon as well as wavelength variation due to temperature variation and aging. As a result of the independent temperature control, narrowband tuning is easily achieved. Results from a series of thorough wavelength stability tests show that the wavelength variation of these laser modules are well within the ITU-T recommended requirement for 25-GHz channel-spacing dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) applications throughout 25 years of usage.     

Production of dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitory peptides from defatted rice bran

The insulinotropic hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 is metabolised extremely rapidly by the ubiquitous enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV). Therefore, human DPP-IV is a key regulator involved in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. To simplify the method of producing an inhibitory peptide against DPP-IV, we focused on rice bran (RB) as a source and subjected proteins from defatted RB to enzymatic proteolysis using 2 commercial enzymes. The RB peptides produced with Umamizyme G exhibited 10 times the inhibitory activity as those produced with Bioprase SP. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) value of the RB peptides was 2.3 ± 0.1 mg/ml. Leu-Pro and Ile-Pro were identified as the inhibitory peptides among the RB peptides produced with Umamizyme G. Ile-Pro was the strongest DPP-IV inhibitor among the 15 Xaa-Pro dipeptides and Pro-Ile tested. Ile-Pro competitively inhibited DPP-IV (K_i = 0.11 mM). Mass spectrometry indicated that the contents of Leu-Pro and Ile-Pro in the RB peptides were 2.91 ± 0.52 μg/mg.