Edge-emitting Semiconductor Lasers Research Articles

Variable magnification beam expander system based on semiconductor laser

Due to the different divergence angles in two perpendicular directions and the presence of astigmatism in edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, the communication distance and efficiency of underwater communication are seriously affected. Therefore, based on the fact that the semiconductor laser beam belongs to Gaussian beam, satisfying Gaussian characteristics and collimating and expanding characteristics, a system composed of fast-axis collimation mirror and variable magnification beam expander is designed. Simulation is performed, and the final divergence angle is calculated. Experimental results show that the divergence angles of the fast axis and the slow axis have been compressed from 49 and 9, respectively, to 0.315 mrad and 0.180 mrad. Simulation demonstrates that the system can achieve propagation over a distance of 100m underwater and solve the alignment difficulty of APT. The designed structure is compact, easy for processing and adjustment, with high practical value, which helps to solve the problems of optical energy loss and low coupling efficiency in underwater long-distance communication.

Spatial coherence research and passive speckle suppression for edge-emitting broad-area semiconductor lasers

The spatial coherence of filaments in edge-emitting broad-area semiconductor lasers (BALs) is studied based on speckle theory, and a passive speckle suppression method for BALs is demonstrated. A fly-eye lens is used to integrate the filaments and homogenize the laser beam. The speckle contrast is consistent with theoretical calculation, which proves the spatial incoherence of filaments. A light pipe is used to introduce an optical path difference between light with different incident angles, enabling more incoherent beamlets. These beamlets are then combined at different illuminating angles by a double-sided fly-eye lens and focusing lens. As a result, the subjective speckle contrast is reduced from 95.94% to 19.13% at 1.2 A while maintaining a high luminous efficiency of 77.8%. This work provides important design principles for laser display systems.

Image encryption application and security analysis based on current modulated edge-emitting semiconductor lasers with pulse packages embedded in the microcontroller

This paper investigates the dynamical characteristics of current-modulated edge-emitting semiconductor lasers (CMEESLs) and their image encryption application. The associated dynamical characteristic of the CMEESL is divulged in the two-dimensional coordinate space of the system parameters by altering the modulation’s frequency and amplitude. The CMEESL divulges cyclical pulse packages preceded by cyclic-doubling cascade follow by complex pulse packages when the modulation current density frequency is limited below 1 GHz. The microcontroller implementation of the CMEESL is realized and its results find agreement compared with the numerical dynamics of the CMEESL. The chaotic equations describing CMEESL are first modeled in the LabVIEW program and random number generation (RNG) is performed. The obtained random numbers are subjected to the NIST 800–22 statistical standard package, proving its worth to be employed for encryption applications. Employing the random numbers gotten, the LabVIEW environment is used in encrypting the image. The encrypted image is subjected to histogram, correlation, number of pixel change rates (NPCR) - unified average changing intensity (UACI), and entropy analyses. The reliability of the method is proven by the success achieved in the encryption process.

Research Progress of Horizontal Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser.

The horizontal cavity surface emitting laser (HCSEL) boasts excellent properties, including high power, high beam quality, and ease of packaging and integration. It fundamentally resolves the problem of the large divergence angle in traditional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, making it a feasible scheme for realizing high-power, small-divergence-angle, and high-beam-quality semiconductor lasers. Here, we introduce the technical scheme and review the development status of HCSELs. Firstly, we thoroughly analyze the structure, working principles, and performance characteristics of HCSELs according to different structures, such as the structural characteristics and key technologies. Additionally, we describe their optical properties. Finally, we analyze and discuss potential development prospects and challenges for HCSELs.

A simplified laser-to-chip edge coupling scheme using 3D SU-8 taper

In this work, we design and simulate a three-dimensional (3D) SU-8 tapered edge coupler for effectively guiding light from an edge-emitting semiconductor laser diode directly to a silicon waveguide to realize a hybrid on-chip silicon light source. A series of coupling efficiencies for the commonly used top silicon thicknesses of the silicon-on-insulator wafers from 220 to 3000 nm are obtained, showing that this polymer taper can largely improve the coupling efficiency when the silicon waveguide thickness is moderate, for instance, from 41% (with no taper) to 67% for the 700 nm- thick silicon waveguide under 1 μm gap offset and relax the lateral misalignment tolerance to above one micron by suppressing the butt refractive index contrast and the mode mismatch between the laser diode and the silicon waveguide. Wave transformation inside the tapered coupler and the input silicon waveguide has also been revealed by 3D finite-difference time-domain simulations. This 3D tapered coupler is cost effective and easily fabricated which can have wide practical applications in massive production of various silicon photonic chips based on the present complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor foundry.

Focused ion beam milling of ridge waveguides of edge-emitting semiconductor lasers

We studied the influence of the focused ion beam milling of ridge waveguides on lasing parameters of edge-emitting lasers, based on a separate confinement double heterostructure. It is shown that there are three degrees of influence, according to the etching depth: modification of the waveguide properties only, a decrease in efficiency without changing the threshold current, and a simultaneous deterioration in the threshold current and efficiency with significant modification of the optical characteristics of the laser. Keywords: focused ion beam, semiconductor laser, optical waveguide, single mode lasing.

Thermal resistance measurement of edge-emitting semiconductor lasers using spontaneous emission spectra

An improved technique for thermal resistance measurement of edge-emitting diode lasers using spontaneous emission spectra, collected through the opening in the n-contact within the range of operating currents, has been proposed. The advantage of the proposed technique is that systematic errors typical for measurements based on lasing spectra are excluded. The accuracy of the method was verified by measuring the dependence of the thermal resistance on the cavity length for diode lasers with 100 μm strip width. Obtained results are in good agreement with the model, and the minimum measurement error was ±0.1 K/W. The proposed technique can be used in metrological support of fabrication process of semiconductor lasers. Keywords: laser diode, thermal resistance, spontaneous emission.

Bistable and coexisting attractors in current modulated edge emitting semiconductor laser: control and microcontroller-based design

This paper reports on the numerical analysis, control of coexisting attractors and microcontroller-based design of current modulated edge emitting semiconductor laser (CMEESL). The stability of equilibrium points of solitary edge emitting semiconductor laser found is investigated. By varying the amplitude of modulation current density, CMEESL displays periodic behaviors, period-doubling to chaotic behavior, bistability and coexistence between limit cycle and chaotic attractors. The coexistence between chaotic and limit cycle attractors is destroyed and controlled to a desired monostable trajectory by means of the linear augmentation method. In addition, a microcontroller-based circuit is also designed to indicate that CMEESL can be used in real applications. Microcontroller-based circuit outputs and numerical analysis results confirm each other.

Signatures of a frequency-modulated comb in a VECSEL

Optical frequency combs based on mode-locked lasers have revolutionized many areas of science and technology, such as precision metrology, optical frequency synthesis, and telecommunications. In recent years, a particular kind of frequency comb has been observed in edge-emitting semiconductor lasers where the phase difference between longitudinal laser modes is fixed but not zero. This results in a linearly chirped output in the time domain with nearly constant intensity. Here, by using coherent beatnote spectroscopy, we show that such a comb regime can also exist in vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers, as evidenced for a specific part of the laser spectrum. Our findings may not only lead to a better understanding of the physics of frequency-modulated combs but also enable comb applications with high optical power per comb line and flexible emission wavelengths.

Passive mode-locking of p-doped quantum dot semiconductor lasers

Quantum dot based monolithic edge-emitting semiconductor lasers at 1.25 µm are ideal sources for the generation of broad optical frequency combs for optical communication applications. In this work, InAs/InGaAs quantum dot lasers with different total laser length to absorber length ratio and with different p-doping concentrations in the GaAs barrier sections are investigated experimentally in dependence on the gain injection current and absorber reverse bias voltage. A smaller mode-locking area is found for the p-doped device in dependence on the laser biasing conditions. For the undoped active region 1.3 ps short pulse widths at a pulse repetition rate of 20 GHz with a pulse-to-pulse timing jitter of 111 fs are reported for an absorber section length of 12% to the total cavity length. For an undoped and p-doped device short pulse emission between 2.5 ps and 5.5 ps is attained and a shorter absorber section length of 8% or 5%.

Measurements of internal optical loss inside an operating laser diode

An experimental technique for measuring internal optical loss in high-power edge-emitting semiconductor lasers is demonstrated. The technique is based on coupling a probe beam into the waveguide of a pulse-pumped laser diode. It allows measuring free-carrier absorption (FCA) in a laser heterostructure at different temperatures and at pump current levels up to 30 kA/cm2. Measurement results are presented for two laser heterostructure designs, which vary in the waveguide doping level and material. For both heterostructures, the pump current increase induces a significant rise in FCA and a corresponding increase in internal optical loss, from 0.4–0.7 cm−1 at the threshold current to 2–2.5 cm−1 at 15 kA/cm2. At higher temperatures, the dependence is even stronger and the internal optical loss rises to 6 cm−1 (65 °C, 27 kA/cm2). The gradient of the FCA current dependence is lower for the laser heterostructure with a doped GaAs waveguide, while the heterostructure with an undoped AlGaAs waveguide displays a larger increase in FCA but better internal quantum efficiency at high currents. These results show that the proposed experimental method has significant potential.

Efficient coupling of dynamic electro-optical and heat-transport models for high-power broad-area semiconductor lasers

In this work, we discuss the modeling of edge-emitting high-power broad-area semiconductor lasers. We demonstrate an efficient iterative coupling of a slow heat transport (HT) model defined on multiple vertical–lateral laser cross-sections with a fast dynamic electro-optical (EO) model determined on the longitudinal–lateral domain that is a projection of the device to the active region of the laser. Whereas the HT-solver calculates temperature and thermally-induced refractive index changes, the EO-solver exploits these distributions and provides time-averaged field intensities, quasi-Fermi potentials, and carrier densities. All these time-averaged distributions are used repetitively by the HT-solver for the generation of the heat sources entering the HT problem solved in the next iteration step.

Design of a multimode interference waveguide semiconductor laser combining gain coupled distributed feedback grating

Semiconductor laser is one of the most critical components in the field of modern communication. Research and development of single-mode semiconductor laser with high stability, high power, high beam quality and narrow line width is an important research area in this field. In this paper, A novel edge-emitting semiconductor laser diode structure is proposed. In the structure an active multimode interference waveguide structure serves as a main gain region. To modulate the longitudinal mode of the laser, a gain-coupled distributed feedback(DFB) laser based on high order surface gain coupled grating is introduced into the structure as well. The novel structure is then fabricated and compared with an conventional DFB laser. The experimental results show that higher slope efficiency and output power are achieved with the proposed structure than those with the conventional distributed feedback semiconductor lasers. The novel structure is also compared with conventional MMI laser with only Fabry-Parot(FP) cavity. The result shows that the proposed structure has higher beam quality and better stability than the FP cavity multimode interference waveguide lasers. To enhance the gain contrast in the quantum wells without introducing the effective index-coupled effect, the groove length and depth are well designed. Our device provides a single longitudinal mode with the maximum CW output power up to 53.8 mW/facet at 981.21 nm and 400 mA without facet coating, 3 dB linewidth < 13.6 pm, and SMSR > 32 dB. Optical bistable characteristic is observed with a threshold current difference. Meanwhile, by using high-order distribution feedback grating formed by shallow surface etching in the process of chip design and fabrication, the proposed structure of laser diode can realize regrowth freely and only micron-scale precision i-line lithography is required. Such a structure with simple fabrication process and low manufacturing cost has great potential for commercial mass production.

Beam quality improvement of high-power semiconductor lasers using laterally inhomogeneous waveguides

High-brightness vertical broad-area edge-emitting (HiBBEE) semiconductor lasers in the 1060 nm wavelength range with excellent beam quality in both lateral and vertical directions are presented. An approach to modify the thresholds of the transverse lateral modes of ridge-waveguide (RW) lasers is investigated. It has been experimentally shown that inhomogeneities in both sides of the ridges increase optical losses of the higher-order lateral modes as compared to the fundamental mode. The resulting enhancement in the contrast of the optical losses favors the emission of the fundamental mode and improves the beam quality. Reference RW HiBBEE lasers with a 15 μm wide conventional ridge and a 2.0 mm long cavity provide laterally multi-lateral mode emission which is typical for RW lasers with such wide and homogeneous ridges. On the other hand, RW HiBBEE lasers with triangular-shaped corrugations in both sides of 15 μm wide ridges provide single-lateral mode emission across a wide current range and improve the lateral M2 factor by more than a factor of 2 in the investigated current range. The corrugated RW HiBBEE lasers provide an almost 2 times higher brightness than the reference RW lasers.

Chirped photonic crystal for spatially filtered optical feedback to a broad-area laser

We derive and analyze an efficient model for reinjection of spatially filtered optical feedback from an external resonator to a broad area, edge emitting semiconductor laser diode (DL). Spatial filtering is achieved by a chirped photonic crystal, with variable periodicity along the optical axis and negligible resonant backscattering. The optimal chirp is obtained from a genetic algorithm, which yields solutions that are robust against perturbations. Exemplary numerical simulations of the composite system with our optoelectronic solver indicate that spatially filtered reinjection can enhance lower-order transversal optical modes in the DL and, consequently, improve the spatial beam quality.

Experimental study of optical frequency comb generation in gain-switched semiconductor lasers

A systematic experimental study of the generation of Optical Frequency Combs (OFCs) by gain switching two types of edge emitting semiconductor lasers (Distributed Feedback and Discrete Mode) is presented. High resolution spectral measurements together with linewidth characterization and the analysis of the temporal profiles and the radio-frequency spectra are used to evaluate the evolution of the quality of the OFCs, as a function of the driving conditions. Different types of emission spectra are identified. The physical origin of the OFC properties is discussed. The results indicate that the driving conditions rather than the device properties determine the OFC quality. The optical injection is demonstrated to either improve or deteriorate the quality of the OFCs generated by gain switching, depending on the injection conditions.

Temperature dependence of characteristic parameters of 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Compared with conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) exhibit many advantages such as low power consumption, low threshold current, single longitudinal-mode operation, circular output beam with narrow divergence, on-wafer testing capability, high bandwidth modulation, low cost and easy large-scale integration into two-dimensional arrays, etc. VCSELs have been widely adopted in various applications such as optical communication, optical storage, parallel optical links, etc. At the same time, the rich dynamic characteristics of VCSELs have always been one of the frontier topics in the field of laser research, and many theoretically and experimentally investigated results have been reported. For theoretically investigating the dynamical characteristics of VCSELs, the spin-flip model (SFM) is one of most commonly and effectively used methods. In order to accurately predict the nonlinear dynamical performance of a 1550 nm-VCSEL, six characteristic parameters included in the rate equations of the SFM need to be given accurately. The six characteristic parameters are the decay rate of field k, the decay rate of total carrier population N, the linear anisotropies representing dichroism a, the linear anisotropies representing birefringence p, the spin-flip rate s, and the linewidth enhancement factor . In this work, through experimentally analyzing the output performances of a 1550 nm-VCSEL under free-running and parallel polarized optical injection, such six characteristic parameters included in the SFM are extracted first in the case that the temperature of the VCSEL is set to be 20.00℃. Furthermore, through gradually increasing the temperature of the 1550 nm-VCSEL from 10.00℃ to 30.00℃, the dependence of the six characteristic parameters on the temperature of the 1550 nm-VCSEL is investigated emphatically. The results show that with the increase of temperature of the 1550 nm-VCSEL, the linear anisotropy representing birefringence p behaves as an increasing trend, and the linewidth enhancement factor shows a decreasing trend. However, the other four characteristic parameters present complex varying trends with the increase of the temperature of the 1550 nm-VCSEL. The research in this paper is helpful in accurately understanding and controlling the dynamical characteristics of the VCSEL, and we hope that it can give a guidance for practical applications.

Efficient coupling of the inhomogeneous current spreading model to the dynamic electro-optical solver for broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor devices

We extend a 2 (space) + 1 (time)-dimensional traveling wave model for broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor lasers by a model for inhomogeneous current spreading from the contact to the active zone of the laser. To speedup the performance of the device simulations, we suggest and discuss several approximations of the inhomogeneous current density in the active zone.

Novel types of photonic band crystal high power and high brightness semiconductor lasers

A novel type of high power edge-emitting semiconductor laser (SL) with extended vertical photonic band crystal (PBC) waveguide was reviewed. Simulations predict narrow beam divergence, resulting from the thick PBC waveguide, to be independent of realistic variations of the growth parameters. Narrow ridge lasers fabricated along the simulations indeed demonstrate superior output power, narrow beam divergence, circular beam profile, excellent beam quality and very low astigmatism. Efficient fiber coupling decisive for most applications was thus eased. Stability of the laser under a wide range of operating temperature was demonstrated. Ultrashort pulses with few ps of duration at GHz repetition rates were generated by passively mode locking the lasers.

Behavior of a new electronic circuit mimicking the edge-emitting semiconductor laser

An electronic analog circuit of the edge-emitting semiconductor laser is proposed. It is powered with a sine wave, triangular wave and square wave. The numerical results are compared to the experimental one and an agreement is found. By using one parameter controlling the normalized reverse bias of the injection current, the Bifurcation diagram obtained when the electronic system is powered with the triangular wave shows that the system exhibits a period-doubling to chaos and this bifurcation diagram appears to be a shift compare to the one obtained with the sinusoidal wave.