Feedback Laser Research Articles

Sensing and imaging using laser feedback interferometry with quantum cascade lasers

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are high-power sources of coherent radiation in the midinfrared and terahertz (THz) bands. Laser feedback interferometry (LFI) is one of the simplest coherent techniques, for which the emission source can also play the role of a highly-sensitive detector. The combination of QCLs and LFI is particularly attractive for sensing applications, notably in the THz band where it provides a high-speed high-sensitivity detection mechanism which inherently suppresses unwanted background radiation. LFI with QCLs has been demonstrated for a wide range of applications, including the measurement of internal laser characteristics, trace gas detection, materials analysis, biomedical imaging, and near-field imaging. This article provides an overview of QCLs and the LFI technique, and reviews the state of the art in LFI with sensing using QCLs.

Single passband microwave photonic filter with widely tuning range based on optical injected distributed feedback semiconductor laser

A novel widely tunable single passband microwave photonic filter (MPF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which is based on a carrier-suppressed double sidebands (CS-DSB) optical signal injected into an distributed feedback (DFB) laser. A polarization modulator (PolM) and a polarization beam splitter (PBS) are exploited to generate the CS-DSB optical signal. When the CS-DSB optical signal is injected into the DFB laser, due to the frequency selective gain feature of optical injected DFB laser, one sideband of the CS-DSB optical signal is selected and amplified. Beating the amplified sideband with the optical carrier, the gain spectrum of the DFB laser is mapped to the frequency response of the MPF. The MPF can be tuned by adjusting the wavelength of the DFB laser. Experiment results show that the MPF can be tuned from 0 to 40 GHz by changing the working temperature of the DFB laser.

Optical chimera in light polarization

Light polarization is an inherent property of the coherent laser output that finds applications, for example, in vision, imaging, spectroscopy, cosmology, and communications. We report here on light polarization dynamics that repeatedly switches between a stationary state of polarization and an irregularly pulsating polarization. The reported dynamics is found to result from the onset of chimeras. Chimeras in nonlinear science refer to the counterintuitive coexistence of coherent and incoherent dynamics in an initially homogeneous network of coupled nonlinear oscillators. The existence of chimera states has been evidenced only recently in carefully designed experiments using either mechanical, optomechanical, electrical, or optical oscillators. Interestingly, the chimeras reported here originate from the inherent coherent properties of a commercial laser diode. The spatial and temporal properties of the chimeras found in light polarization are controlled by the laser diode and feedback parameters, leading, e.g., to multistability between chimeras with multiple heads and to turbulent chimeras.

Effect of Measurement of Dew Point Temperature in Moist Air on the Absorption Line at 1392.53 nm of Water Vapor

The HITRAN database (High-Resolution Transmission molecular absorption database) is an extremely helpful reference for selecting lines of molecular species. In the case of water vapor, a particular strong absorption line around λ ≈ 1392.5 nm is suitable for the detection of molecules, not only because of its high strength but also because it is well separated from the neighboring transitions, thus avoiding any overlap. First, we present the optical system that uses a distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode, emitting around λ ≈ 1392.5 nm with a power ≈ 3 mW and linewidth ≤ 10 MHz. For metrological needs, we are looking for a means to control the water vapor concentration in ambient air in near real time and especially when an optical chilled mirror hygrometer is used. The latter instrument is widely used due to its performance with regard to both accuracy and repeatability of measurements. Here, using the molecular absorption device the use of such an instrument is examined from the point of view of its impact on the measurement of relative humidity. This paper reports the measured frequency positions of the observed line at λ = 1392.5337 nm for different air pressures and compares them with the values given in the HITRAN database. In addition, we discuss the possibility of using water vapor detection by spectroscopy to observe the change of the shape and the position of the absorption line produced during measurements of the dew point temperature by the optical chilled mirror hygrometer.

Coherent imaging using laser feedback interferometry with pulsed-mode terahertz quantum cascade lasers.

We report a coherent terahertz (THz) imaging system that utilises a quantum cascade laser (QCL) operating in pulsed-mode as both the source and detector. The realisation of a short-pulsed THz QCL feedback interferometer permits both high peak powers and improved thermal efficiency, which enables the cryogen-free operation of the system. In this work, we demonstrated pulsed-mode swept-frequency laser feedback interferometry experimentally. Our interferometric detection scheme not only permits the simultaneous creation of both amplitude and phase images, but inherently suppresses unwanted background radiation. We demonstrate that the proposed system utilising microsecond pulses has the potential to achieve 0.25 mega-pixel per second acquisition rates, paving the pathway to video frame rate THz imaging.

Nanometric sensing with laser feedback interferometry.

We demonstrate a nanometric sensor based on feedback interferometry in a distributed feedback (DFB) laser by using a measurement of either the optical frequency or laser voltage. We find that in an optimal range of optical feedback, the sensor operates reliably down to an extrapolated 12nm; for the sensor demonstrated here at ∼1550 nm, this provides a minimum detectible displacement of λ/130.

Effect of dual-channel optical feedback on self-mixing interferometry system

Laser feedback interference is widely used for displacement measurement of non-cooperative targets due to its ultra-high sensitivity. However, by the same token, laser feedback interferometry (LFI) suffers from multi-channel optical feedback, which compromises measurement stability and accuracy. We perform both simulations and experiments to study the effect of dual-channel optical feedback on LFI systems based displacement measurement. Dual-channel optical feedback interference is the simplest and most representative form of multi-channel feedback interference. We evaluate system performance by varying which is the ratio of feedback level in the primary channel to the one in the secondary channel. The results indicate that the measured displacement curve is a linear line superimposed with nonlinear periodic errors when the target in the primary channel moves linearly and the target in the secondary channel stays stationary. Whereas, the curve is a periodic curve instead of a linear one, for the case when the target in the secondary channel moves linearly while the one in the primary channel stays stationary. Furthermore, the amplitude and shape of the periodic curves also depend on the parameter When is much less than 1, the displacement curve is sinusoidal, whereas the curve has a saw-tooth shape with larger amplitude for close to 1. In view of this situation, a new displacement measurement method, counting the cycles of the periodic displacement curves, is proposed. The current work can provide theoretical and experimental suggestions for improving the performance of existing self-mixing interferometry systems, and implementing ones with multi-channel optical feedback channels.

Mechanism of contrast-enhancement in ultrasound-modulated laser feedback imaging with ultrasonicmicrobubble contrast agent

Ultrasound-modulated optical imaging technology is a new type of biological tissue optical detection technology, and sensitive to the change of scattering coefficient and absorption coefficient of biological tissue. This technology is a non-ionizing and non-invasive pathological detection method, which has great potential application in early detection of cancer. However, ultrasound-modulated optical imaging technology is insufficient in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and imaging contrast. Frequency-shifted laser feedback technology with microchip laser is a new type of highly sensitive interference technology, whose gain coefficient for weak optical signal can reach 10<sup>6</sup>. This technology can greatly improve the SNR of imaging. Combined with the high sensitive laser feedback technology, the ultrasound-modulated laser feedback technology is proposed. The SNR of this technology is better than that of the traditional ultrasound-modulated optical imaging technology. The increase in SNR can achieve greater depth of detection in biological tissue imaging, but there is no significant improvement in imaging contrast. In order to improve the contrast of biological tissue imaging and achieve high resolution imaging of thick biological tissue, we use ultrasound microbubble contrast agent in ultrasound-modulated laser feedback imaging technology. We establish a Monte Carlo photon transport model with microbubbles in order to study the mechanism of contrast enhancement in ultrasound-modulated laser feedback imaging with microbubbles. Finally, we establish an experimental system to verify the correctness of the simulation results. Experimental and simulation results show that in the transparent solution, the ultrasonic microbubble contrast agent can enhance the ultrasound-modulated laser feedback signal and generate harmonic modulation, which can improve the imaging contrast by detecting the enhancement of the fundamental and harmonic signals of the feedback. In the scattering medium, the ultrasonic microbubble contrast agent can significantly attenuate the ultrasound modulated laser feedback signal, and the imaging contrast can be improved by detecting the attenuation of the fundamental and harmonic signal.

High-resolution frequency-domain spectroscopy for water vapor with coherent and continuous terahertz wave

High-resolution frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) is set up using a coherent and continuous wave terahertz (THz) emitter and receiver. THz waves are generated and detected by two photomixers with two distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. Atmospheric water vapor with different relative humidity is systematically investigated by the FDS. A high-frequency resolution of ∼14 MHz is obtained with the help of Hilbert transformation, leading to a well resolved and distinct transmittance characterization of water vapor. Compared with conventional THz time-domain spectroscopy, the high-resolution continuous wave THz spectrometer is one of the most practical systems in gas-phase molecular sensing, identification, and monitoring.

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.

Інтерферометрія зворотного зв’язку в лазерному резонаторі. Параметрична модель.

The article is devoted to an alternative view on the explanation of the mechanism of action of devices based on laser feedback interferometry (LFI-model), which is caused by contradictions between the theory of existing models and practical results. A view other than the Lang-Kobayashi model (LK model) and the parametric LFI model (P model) are proposed. Due to the theory, which is based on the parametric properties of the LFI-model, the level of advantage of LFI technology over traditional technologies is quantitatively substantiated. The article gives an example of calculating the useful signal power. It is calculated that at a distance of 500 meters, the signal according to the P-model is 34 dB higher than the signal calculated by traditional models. Thus, from the traditional models follows the inverse square dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio (S / N ratio, hereinafter - SNR) on the distance to the target l_t, viz.: SNR ~ l_t^{-2}. In practice, the SNR is much higher. Within the P-model, another dependence of SNR on l_t, is theoretically proved and experimentally confirmed, viz.: SNR ~ (l_t * ln l_t^2)^{-1/2}. Traditional models do not consider the presence of a useful signal in the pump current, while, in fact, its power is more than 10 times greater than the radiation power in the resonator. The P-model eliminates contradictions between theoretical models and practical results.

正交偏振激光回馈干涉仪稳定性提高方法研究

正交偏振激光回馈干涉仪稳定性提高方法研究

Frequency-Shifted Optical Feedback Measurement Technologies Using a Solid-State Microchip Laser

Since its first application toward displacement measurements in the early-1960s, laser feedback interferometry has become a fast-developing precision measurement modality with many kinds of lasers. By employing the frequency-shifted optical feedback, microchip laser feedback interferometry has been widely researched due to its advantages of high sensitivity, simple structure, and easy alignment. More recently, the laser confocal feedback tomography has been proposed, which combines the high sensitivity of laser frequency-shifted feedback effect and the axial positioning ability of confocal microscopy. In this paper, the principles of a laser frequency-shifted optical feedback interferometer and laser confocal feedback tomography are briefly introduced. Then we describe their applications in various kinds of metrology regarding displacement measurement, vibration measurement, physical quantities measurement, imaging, profilometry, microstructure measurement, and so on. Finally, the existing challenges and promising future directions are discussed.

Smart laser osteotomy: integrating a pulsed 1064nm fiber laser into the sample arm of a fiber optic 1310nm OCT system for ablation monitoring.

Real-time depth metrology during material removal via laser ablation is useful in many forms of laser machining. Until now, coaxial optical coherence tomography (OCT) metrology was achieved by the coupling of an OCT imaging beam and ablating beams using a dichroic filter. We present an alternative design with all fiber delivery that is more suitable for surgical laser ablation applications. The novel system design integrates a high peak-power pulsed Yb-doped fiber laser (1064nm) coupled directly into the sample arm of a swept-source OCT system (λc = 1310nm). We measured the OCT signal degradation due to dispersion and attenuation through the ablation fiber laser cavity. Ablation progression is measured in real-time using M-mode OCT. The mean depth targeting error was found to range from 10µm to 80µm in phantom ablation experiments and 21µm to 60µm in bone ablation. A number of issues have been solved, including point-spread function (PSF) peak broadening due to signal delay and dispersion, high bending loss due to dissimilar fiber used throughout the design, and problems due to the extremely high ablation power to swept-source power ratio (> 2×104 peak to average power). To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of thermal-mediated laser ablation drilling integrated with coaxial OCT imaging through a single-mode, single-cladded output fiber, without using dichroic beam splitters or free-space optic filters anywhere in the optical path and with this high ablation laser power to OCT source power ratio. The removal of bulk optics compared to existing designs opens a new path for compact integration of the entire system. Also, since the ablation laser and OCT feedback system exist along the same fiber path, the need for maintenance and repair are greatly reduced since spatial beam alignment and the potential open-air contamination of optical surfaces are virtually eliminated. We believe that this integrated system is a great candidate for adoption in depth-controlled surgical ablation applications.

Polymer Lasing in a Periodic-Random Compound Cavity.

Simultaneous distributed feedback (DFB) lasing and linear polarized random lasing are observed in a compound cavity, which consists of a grating cavity and a random cavity. The grating cavity is fabricated by interference lithography. A light-emitting polymer doped with silver nanoparticles is spin-coated on the grating, forming a random cavity. DFB lasing and random lasing occur when the periodic-random compound cavity is optically pumped. The directionality and polarization of the random laser are modified by the grating structure. These results can potentially be used to design integrated laser sources.

Inverse Scattering Method Design of Regrowth-Free Single-Mode Semiconductor Lasers Using Pit Perturbations for Monolithic Integration

An inverse scattering method is used to design regrowth-free single-mode lasers, using etch depth insensitive pits as perturbations in the laser cavity. These pit perturbations are circular holes etched into the waveguide of each laser to a depth 0.8 $\mu \text{m}$ below the quantum wells in the laser material, and are used in place of the etch depth sensitive slots more commonly implemented for optical feedback in photonic integrable lasers. We compare the number of these pit perturbations required to achieve the target wavelength of the devices, and report strongly single mode lasers (greater than 40 dB). Devices were then designed to lase at wavelengths between 1545 nm and 1565 nm, to demonstrate the wavelength accuracy of the designs. Thermal tuning was used to tune device wavelength over 2 nm, while maintaining side mode suppression ratios greater than 30 dB.

Low‐cost coaxial DFB LD transmitter optical subassembly for 25 Gb/s NRZ and 50 Gb/s PAM‐4 transmissions

Here, a directly modulated coaxial distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode (LD) transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA) module is proposed for 25 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and 50 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) transmissions. A low-cost TO-56 header was used in the DFB LD TOSA package. The high-frequency performance of the coaxial 1310 nm DFB LD TOSA module was simulated and analysed. The simulated frequency response can correspond with the measured result, and the 3 dB bandwidth was 19 GHz. In the back-to-back and 10 km signal mode fibre transmissions, 25 Gb/s NRZ and 50 Gb/s PAM-4 eye diagrams of the DFB LD TOSA were measured. Clear 25 Gb/s NRZ and 50 Gb/s PAM-4 eye openings can be observed. For 25 Gb/s NRZ transmissions, the received sensitivity was −11.8 dBm under a bit error rate (BER) of 10 −12 . For 50 Gb/s PAM-4 transmissions, the BER was estimated to be below the forward error correction threshold. The low-cost coaxial DFB LD TOSA is suitable in 100, 200, and 400 Gb/s transmissions.

Microparticle discrimination using laser feedback interferometry.

In this work, we present a method to discriminate between different microparticle sizes in mixed flowing media based on laser feedback interferometry, which could ultimately form the basis for a small, low-cost, real-time microembolus detector. We experimentally evaluated the performance of the system using microparticle phantoms, and the system achieved approximately 45% positive predictive value and better than 98% negative predictive value in the detection and classification of abnormally large particles.

Tunable transmission of a nematic liquid crystal as defect in a 1D periodic structure of dielectric materials by orientation and re-orientation of liquid crystal molecules.

In this paper, we investigate tunable transmission characteristics of a one-dimensional periodic structure (1DPS), designed with periodic dielectric materials containing a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) as a defect layer, on the basis of orientation and re-orientation of LC molecules. The nonlinear differential equation for the director of the liquid crystal under the light field is solved numerically. The relation between the liquid crystal director and the intensity of the electromagnetic wave (EMW) is derived. Transmittances of the liquid crystal defect layer in the 1DPS are calculated with the variation of the intensity of the incident wave and liquid crystal director tilt angles. By varying the director tilt angle of the liquid crystal molecules as well as the incident angle of the EMW, the shifting of the transmitted defect mode wavelengths is studied. Such study is helpful to understand how orientation and reorientation of the molecules affect the transmittance of the considered periodic structure when the EMW interacts with an embedded liquid crystal as a defect layer in the 1DPS of dielectric materials. Such photonic structure of dielectric materials with the liquid crystal layer as a defect layer can be used to fabricate bistable switches, optical filters, feedback lasers, etc.

Determining Ethanol Content of Liquid Solutions Using Laser Feedback Interferometry with a Terahertz Quantum Cascade Laser

Over the last decade, terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy has been investigated as a technique for assaying the ethanol content of liquid solutionsindeed, operating at THz frequencies addresses some of the challenges that traditional optical refraction measurements face, such as delineation between sugarethanol content, florescence, and problems arising from carbonation or other dissolved gasses. In this article, we propose an alternative system and method for assaying ethanol content of liquid solutions at THz frequencies, which employs a laser feedback interferometer built around a 2.6-THz quantum cascade laser. The system is tested against a series of controlled waterethanol solutions, as well as a series of commercially available beverages. The accuracy of the estimated ethanol content compares favorably to THz time-domain spectroscopy techniques.