Frequency control of semiconductor lasers

Abstract

This article reviews our recent works on frequency control of semiconductor lasers. The magnitudes of quantum noise limited frequency modulation (FM) noise, realized by the negative electrical feedback, are given for four methods of using an external Fabry–Perot cavity as a frequency demodulator. It is shown that the theoretical expression for the quantum noise-limited FM noise of the feedback laser contains a factor of 1/8 as compared with that of the free running laser, which is due to the different ways of injecting the vacuum fluctuations to the laser cavity and to the external Fabry–Perot cavity for negative electrical feedback. The FM sideband technique is shown to be an effective method to reject the contribution of laser power fluctuations to the FM noise detection for the negative electrical feedback system. As a candidate for a high reflectivity and frequency selective external reflector for the optical feedback, characteristics of the semiconductor laser as a phase conjugate mirror, i.e., the characteristics of the nearly degenerate four-wave mixing and the nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a semiconductor laser, are shown. Optical feedback by using a velocity selective optical pumping and polarization spectroscopy of an atomic vapor is proposed as an effective method to realize simultaneously the center frequency stabilization and linewidth reduction of the field spectrum of the laser, and also the fine detuning of the stabilized center frequency. For the heterodyne frequency locking between two lasers, a spectroscopic method of using a Doppler-free spectrum of the three-level atomic vapor, obtained by using the phenomenon of coherent population trapping, is shown. In order to realize a highly efficient nonlinear optical frequency conversion for wideband frequency sweep of semiconductor lasers, a method of adding the output powers of several lasers, i.e., the coherent addition, is presented. After emphasizing that the wideband frequency sweep (covering from the near-infrared to the visible region) can be realized by using the techniques of nonlinear optical frequency conversions and the optical phase locking, relevant experimental results of nonlinear optical frequency conversions are presented which are the second harmonics generation, sum and difference frequency conversions. A highly accurate optical frequency measurement system is proposed using an optical frequency comb generator with a modulation sidebands up to several THz. Performances of the optical frequency comb generator used for this system are presented. As a candidate for an ultrafast and wavelength insensitive photodetector for optical frequency counting, nonbolometric optical response characteristics of a high transition temperature (Tc) oxide superconducting film are demonstrated.