Superluminescent Diode Research Articles

Development of a first-generation miniature multiple reference optical coherence tomography imaging device.

Multiple reference optical coherence tomography (MR-OCT) is a technology ideally suited to low-cost, compact OCT imaging. This modality is an extension of time-domain OCT with the addition of a partial mirror in front of the reference mirror. This enables extended, simultaneous depth scanning with the relatively short scan range of a miniature voice coil motor on which the scanning mirror is mounted. This work details early stage development of the first iteration of a miniature MR-OCT device. This iteration utilizes a fiber-coupled input from an off-board superluminescent diode. The dimensions of the module are 40 × 57 ?? mm . Off-the-shelf miniature optical components, voice coil motors, and photodetectors are used, with the complexity of design depending on the specific application. The photonic module can be configured as either polarized or nonpolarized and can include balanced detection. The results shown in this work are from the nonpolarized device. The system was characterized through measurement of the input spectrum, axial resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio. Typical B-scans of static and in vivo samples are shown, which illustrate the potential applications for such a technology.

A preliminary verification of the floating reference measurement method for non-invasive blood glucose sensing

In the non-invasive sensing of blood glucose by near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, the spectrum is highly susceptible to the unstable and complicated background variations from the human body and the environment. In in vitro analyses, background variations are usually corrected by the spectrum of a standard reference sample that has similar optical properties to the analyte of interest. However, it is hard to find a standard sample for the in vivo measurement. Therefore, the floating reference measurement method is proposed to enable relative measurements in vivo, where the spectra under some special source-detector distance, defined as the floating reference position, are insensitive to the changes in glucose concentration due to the absorption effect and scattering effect. Because the diffuse reflectance signals at the floating reference positions only reflect the information on background variations during the measurement, they can be used as the internal reference. In this paper, the theoretical basis of the floating reference positions in a semi-infinite turbid medium was discussed based on the steady-state diffusion equation and its analytical solutions in a semi-infinite turbid medium (under the extrapolated boundary conditions). Then, Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations and in vitro experiments based on a custom-built continuous-moving spatially resolving double-fiber NIR measurement system, configured with two types of light source, a super luminescent diode (SLD) and a super-continuum laser, were carried out to verify the existence of the floating reference position in 5%, 10% and 20% Intralipid solutions. The results showed that the simulation values of the floating reference positions are close to the theoretical results, with a maximum deviation of approximately 0.3mm in 1100–1320nm. Great differences can be observed in 1340–1400nm because the optical properties of Intralipid in this region don not satisfy the conditions of the steady-state diffusion equation. For the in vitro experiments, floating reference positions exist in 1220nm and 1320nm under two types of light source, and the results are quite close. However, the reference positions obtained from experiments are further from the light source compared with those obtained in the MC simulation. For the turbid media and the wavelengths investigated, the difference is up to 1mm. This study is important for the design of optical fibers to be applied in the floating reference measurement.

High power (60 mW) GaSb-based 1.9 μm superluminescent diode with cavity suppression element

The characteristics and the fabrication of a 1.9 μm superluminescent diode utilizing a cavity suppression element are reported. The strong suppression of reflections allows the device to reach high gain without any sign of lasing modes. The high gain enables strong amplified spontaneous emission and output power up to 60 mW in a single transverse mode. At high gain, the spectrum is centered around 1.9 μm and the full width at half maximum is as large as 60 nm. The power and spectral characteristics pave the way for demonstrating compact and efficient light sources for spectroscopy. In particular, the light source meets requirements for coupling to silicon waveguides and fills a need for leveraging to mid-IR applications photonics integration circuit concepts exploiting hybrid integration to silicon technology.

Tunable continuous-wave dual-wavelength laser by external-cavity superluminescent diode with a volume Bragg grating and a diffraction grating

We demonstrate the tunable continuous-wave dual-wavelength laser based on a double external-cavity superluminescent diode (SLD). The double external cavity consisted of a volume Bragg grating (VBG) and a diffraction grating bracketing the SLD's two facets. The VBG was used as an output coupler to enable the external-cavity SLD to achieve a stable wavelength. A narrow bandwidth of 0.25 nm was achieved in single-wavelength operation. The diffraction grating served as an end mirror to create another tunable wavelength external cavity for the SLD. A wavelength tuning range of 23 nm was achieved. The laser output of the double external-cavity SLD had a tunable spectral separation with dual-wavelengths from +6.42 to −16.94 nm. An output power of up to 37.7 mW was achieved with a frequency difference of 7.1 THz.

Nonlinear behavior of the emission in the periodic structure of InAs monolayers embedded in a GaAs matrix

We report time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurements performed at different temperatures for the Bragg structure containing 60 InAs monolayer-based quantum wells (QWs) periodically arranged in a GaAs matrix. TRPL data reveal an appearance of the additional superradiant (SR) mode originated from coherent collective interaction of QWs. The SR mode is not manifested in the case if a small number of QWs is excited, then only an exciton emission related to the InAs QWs dominates the PL spectrum. The SR mode demonstrates a superlinear dependence of the intensity and radiative decay rate on the excitation power and its intensity increases at elevated temperatures compared to the excitonic emission. The photoluminescence delay time is much shorter for the SR mode indicating that the relaxation of hot excitons can occur via stimulated scattering processes. The specific behavior of the SR emission can have a strong potential for different applications such as optical logic devices, superluminescent diodes, optical switches, and low-threshold lasers. Time-resolved photoluminescence image at low temperature for the Bragg structure consisting of InAs monolayer-based quantum wells (inset).

Parametric amplification of broadband radiation of a cw superluminescent diode under picosecond pumping

It is proposed to use cw superluminescent diodes with a spectral width of about 300 and high spatial coherence as seed radiation sources in parametric amplifiers with picosecond pumping in order to form broadband picosecond pulses. A two-cascade parametric amplifier based on (BBO) crystals is pumped by pulses of the second harmonic of an Nd : YAG laser. For a superluminescent diode spectral width of (centre wavelength ), the spectral width of picosecond pulses at the parametric amplifier output is . At a total pump energy of for BBO crystals, the energy of the enhanced emission of the superluminescent diode is found to be .

High-speed 405-nm superluminescent diode (SLD) with 807-MHz modulation bandwidth.

III-nitride LEDs are fundamental components for visible-light communication (VLC). However, the modulation bandwidth is inherently limited by the relatively long carrier lifetime. In this letter, we present the 405 nm emitting superluminescent diode (SLD) with tilted facet design on semipolar GaN substrate, showing a broad emission of ~9 nm at 20 mW optical power. Owing to the fast recombination (τe<0.35 ns) through the amplified spontaneous emission, the SLD exhibits a significantly large 3-dB bandwidth of 807 MHz. A data rate of 1.3 Gbps with a bit-error rate of 2.9 × 10-3 was obtained using on-off keying modulation scheme, suggesting the SLD being a high-speed transmitter for VLC applications.

Highly reliable high-power superluminescent diodes with three single-mode active channels

We report superluminescent diodes (SLDs) with three ridged active channels, each having a width of , based on one ‘bulk’ and two quantum-well heterostructures. At a cw output power greater than , the emission spectra of these SLDs possess a quasi-Gaussian shape with centre wavelengths near 840, 860 and and widths about 15, 25 and , respectively. In the above operating conditions, the median service life of the SLDs amounted to approximately 50000, 25000 and more than , respectively.

Tunable Emission Wavelength Stacked InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots by Chemical Beam Epitaxy for Optical Coherence Tomography.

We report on Chemical Beam Epitaxy (CBE) growth of wavelength tunable InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QD) based superluminescent diode’s active layer suitable for Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). The In-flush technique has been employed to fabricate QD with controllable heights, from 5 nm down to 2 nm, allowing a tunable emission band over 160 nm. The emission wavelength blueshift has been ensured by reducing both dots’ height and composition. A structure containing four vertically stacked height-engineered QDs have been fabricated, showing a room temperature broad emission band centered at 1.1 µm. The buried QD layers remain insensitive to the In-flush process of the subsequent layers, testifying the reliability of the process for broadband light sources required for high axial resolution OCT imaging.

Temperature stabilization in fibre optic gyroscopes for high altitude aircraft

In earlier days, aircrafts used mechanical gyroscopes which were susceptible to shock, mechanical damage with low accuracy. Developments in fibre optics have led to optics based gyroscopes. Today's conventional aircraft uses sufficient gyroscopes to perform its action such as attitude control, gyro compassing, turn coordination systems and auto pilots. Any error in a gyroscope causes miscalculation of the position or alignment of the aircraft. Commercial aircraft at higher altitudes are susceptible to variations in the temperature. But, in case of fibre optic gyroscopes (FOG), it results in the fluctuation of laser power output which in turn disturbs the output information. We have proposed a temperature control for a closed loop fibre optic gyroscope using a thermo electric cooler (TEC) for stabilizing the output power of a super luminescent diode (SLD). A control loop with a PID controller, filter, TEC and thermistor is proposed which is a part of the temperature control loop to maintain the TEC surface temperature within the specified temperature range. We have simulated the performance for step input along with finite disturbances that are applied over the temperature control loop along its effect over the SLD output power and the effect on gyroscope output is evaluated.

Single-Arm Self-Mixing Superluminescent Diode Interferometer for Flow Measurements

Laser-diode self-mixing interferometry is a noncontact technique widely used both in industries and laboratories. In this paper, we propose to extend the self-mixing approach to low-coherence sources such as superluminescent diodes. In particular, we present a fiber-based common-path interferometer exploiting a single-mode-pigtailed superluminescent diode. The developed measuring system has been demonstrated to be able to directly measure the flow in pipes. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that flow measurements have been performed by a single-arm self-mixing pigtailed superluminescent-diode. The measuring system exploits the Doppler interference pattern produced by the light back-reflected from the inner facet of the pipe wall and the light back-diffused by the moving particles. Then, the use of a low-coherence source allows to measure the velocity of the scattering particles in a fixed and well-defined region located close to the pipe wall, thus providing good robustness to variations of scatterers concentration and allowing to easily estimate the flow under the laminar flow assumption. Experimental results demonstrated a high linearity (Pearson coefficient of about 99 $\%$ ) and sensitivity of about 16.62 $\pm$ 1.1 cm $^{-3}$ , with flows ranging from 1 to 15 cm $^3$ /s and scatterers volume concentration ranging from 0.015 to 0.36 $\%$ .

Anomalous photoluminescence in InP1-xBix.

Low temperature photoluminescence (PL) from InP1−xBix thin films with Bi concentrations in the 0–2.49% range reveals anomalous spectral features with strong and very broad (linewidth of 700 nm) PL signals compared to other bismide alloys. Multiple transitions are observed and their energy levels are found much smaller than the band-gap measured from absorption measurements. These transitions are related to deep levels confirmed by deep level transient spectroscopy, which effectively trap free holes and enhance radiative recombination. The broad luminescence feature is beneficial for making super-luminescence diodes, which can theoretically enhance spatial resolution beyond 1 μm in optical coherent tomography (OCT).

Development of Germano-Silicate Optical Fiber Incorporated with Germanium Nanoparticles and Its Optical Characteristics.

The germano-silicate optical fiber incorporated with Ge nanoparticles with enhanced optical nonlinearity was developed by using modified chemical vapor deposition and drawing processes. A broad photoluminescence band obtained by pumping with the 404 nm superluminescent diode was found to appear from 540 nm to 1,000 nm. The non-resonant nonlinear refractive index, n2, of the fiber measured by the continuous wave self-phase modulation method was 4.95 x 10(-20) m2/W due to the incorporated Ge nanoparticles in the fiber core. The enhancement of the non-resonant optical non-linearity may be due to the creation of the NBOs and other defects from the incorporated Ge-NPs in the fiber core.

Broadband Chirped InAs Quantum-Dot Superluminescent Light-Emitting Diodes With InxAl1-xAs Strain-Reducing Layers

In this paper, broadband InAs quantum-dot (QD) superluminescent light-emitting diodes (SLEDs) are grown by molecular beam epitaxy, fabricated, and then characterized. In order to achieve broadband and uniform emission spectra, the active regions contain a combination of chirped InAs QDs with different InxAl1-xAs strain-reducing layers (SRLs). It has been shown that the InxAl1-xAs SRLs can effectively enlarge the QD emission energy separation between the ground and the excited states. In this paper, QDs with increased energy separation are utilized to enable a broadband QD ensemble by adding additional QD layers with the ground state emission wavelength tuned to fill the gap in emission. In addition, we employed a short postgrowth annealing process of 30 s to further even out the emission spectra. Characterizations of the emission spectra of the as-grown QDs and fabricated QD SLEDs are performed by room-temperature photoluminescence and electroluminescence under continuous-wave (c-w) operation, respectively. In the SLED devices, a broad and uniform spectrum with a linewidth of 100 nm at 3 dB is realized at an injection current level of 100 mA, and no significant spectrum dip is observed in the entire injection current window ranging from 50 $\mu\text{A}$ to 100 mA.

High-brightness semipolar (2021¯) blue InGaN/GaN superluminescent diodes for droop-free solid-state lighting and visible-light communications.

A high-brightness, droop-free, and speckle-free InGaN/GaN quantum well blue superluminescent diode (SLD) was demonstrated on a semipolar (2021¯) GaN substrate. The 447-nm emitting SLD has a broad spectral linewidth of 6.3 nm at an optical power of 123 mW. A peak optical power of 256 mW was achieved at 700 mA CW injection current. By combining YAG:Ce phosphor, SLD-generated white light shows a color-rendering index (CRI) of 68.9 and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 4340 K. The measured frequency response of the SLD revealed a -3 dB bandwidth of 560 MHz, thus demonstrating the feasibility of the device for both solid-state lighting (SSL) and visible-light communication (VLC) applications.

Projection Method of Small Pitch Fringe Pattern Using Talbot Effect with Super Luminescent Diode for 3D Shape Measurement

Projection Method of Small Pitch Fringe Pattern Using Talbot Effect with Super Luminescent Diode for 3D Shape Measurement

Nitride superluminescent diodes with broadened emission spectrum fabricated using laterally patterned substrate.

We demonstrate InGaN/GaN superluminescent diodes with broadened emission spectra fabricated on surface-shaped bulk GaN (0001) substrates. The patterning changes the local vicinal angle linearly along the device waveguide, which results in an indium incorporation profile in InGaN quantum wells. The structure was investigated by microphotoluminescence mapping, showing a shift of central emission wavelength from 413 nm to 430 nm. Spectral full width at half maximum of processed superluminescent diodes is equal to 6.1 nm, while the reference chips show 3.4 nm. This approach may open the path for using nitride devices in applications requiring broad emission spectrum and high beam quality, such as optical coherence tomography.

Optical coherence photoacoustic microscopy (OC-PAM) with an intensity-modulated continuous-wave broadband light source

We developed an optical coherence photoacoustic microscopy system using an intensity-modulated continuous-wave superluminescent diode with a center wavelength of 840 nm. The system can accomplish optical coherence tomography (OCT) and photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) simultaneously. Compared to the system with a pulsed light source, this system is able to achieve OCT imaging with quality as high as conventional spectral-domain OCT. Since both of the OCT and PAM images are generated from the same group of photons, they are intrinsically registered in the lateral directions. The system was tested for multimodal imaging the vasculature of mouse ear in vivo by using gold nanorods as contrast agent for PAM, as well as excised porcine eyes ex vivo. The OCT and PAM images showed complimentary information of the sample.

Polarization properties of single layers in the posterior eyes of mice and rats investigated using high resolution polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography.

We present a high resolution polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) system for ocular imaging in rodents. The system operates at 840 nm and uses a broadband superluminescent diode providing an axial resolution of 5.1 µm in air. PS-OCT data was acquired at 83 kHz A-scan rate by two identical custom-made spectrometers for orthogonal polarization states. Pigmented (Brown Norway, Long Evans) and non-pigmented (Sprague Dawley) rats as well as pigmented mice (C57BL/6) were imaged. Melanin pigment related depolarization was analyzed in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and choroid of these animals using the degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU). For all rat strains, significant differences between RPE and choroidal depolarization were observed. In contrast, DOPU characteristics of RPE and choroid were similar for C57BL/6 mice. Moreover, the depolarization within the same tissue type varied significantly between different rodent strains. Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, phase retardation, and birefringence were mapped and quantitatively measured in Long Evans rats in vivo for the first time. In a circumpapillary annulus, retinal nerve fiber layer birefringence amounted to 0.16°/µm ± 0.02°/µm and 0.17°/µm ± 0.01°/µm for the left and right eyes, respectively.

GaAs-based superluminescent diodes with window-like facet structure for low spectral modulation at high output powers

We demonstrate a GaAs-based superluminescent diode (SLD) based on the incorporation of a window-like back facet into a self-aligned stripe structure in order to reduce the effective facet reflectivity. This allows the realisation of SLDs with low spectral modulation depth (SMD) at high power spectral density (PSD), without the application of anti-reflection coatings to either facet. This approach is therefore compatible with ultra-broadband gain active elements. We show that 30 mW output power can be attained in a narrow bandwidth, corresponding to 2.2 mW nm−1 PSD with only 5% SMD, centred about 990 nm. We discuss the design criteria for high power and low SMD and the deviation from a linear dependence of SMD on output power, resulting from Joule heating in the self-aligned stripe.