Tunable external cavity diode lasers

276 Pages·2007·3.271 MB·English

by  Cunyun Ye

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Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401–402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
TUNABLE EXTERNAL CAVITY DIODE LASERS
Tunable Semiconductor Diode Lasers
Copyright © 2004 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright
Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to
photocopy is not required from the publisher.
ISBN 981-256-088-2
Editor: Tjan Kwang Wei
Printed in Singapore.
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To my wife and daughters
Jane Qin Chen and Christina Ye, Vivian Ye
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Preface
Since its invention in 1961, the semiconductor diode laser has been the
most important of all types of lasers. It has found widespreadapplications
in numerous fields ranging from basic research to industrial photonic sys-
tems such as coherent fiber telecommunications because of its well-known
features: mass productivity, high reliability, miniature size, lower power
consumption, wide tunability, high efficiency, and excellent direct modula-
tion capability.
There are numerous books on semiconductor diode lasers and tunable
lasers. However,to the best of my knowledge,this is the firstbook ontun-
ableexternalcavitysemiconductordiodelasersthatprovidesanup-to-date
exploration on physics, technology, and performance of widely applicable
coherent radiation sources of tunable external cavity diode lasers. I hope
this book give undergraduate and graduate students, scientists, and engi-
neersthe practicalinformationneededtostudythe tunableexternalcavity
diode laser; to build up the systems of the tunable external cavity diode
laser,andto developadvancedlasersystemsfortheir ownparticularappli-
cations.
The purpose of this book is to provide a thoroughaccountof the state-
of-the-art in relation to tunable external cavity diode lasers. This is ac-
complished by explaining this account with basic concepts of semiconduc-
tor diode laser and its tunability with monolithic structures as described
in Chapters 2 and 3, characteristic features of components and system of
tunable external cavity diode lasers as elucidated in Chapters 4, 5 and 6,
frequency stabilization of external cavity diode lasers introduced in Chap-
ters 7 and applications of external cavity diode lasers in a wide variety of
fields investigated in chapter 8. In this way, this book can be used in a
varietyofwaysbyabroadrangeofreaders: asatextbookinspecialtopics
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viii Tunable External Cavity Diode Lasers
forundergraduateandgraduatestudents; asahandbook orreferencebook
for researchers,scientists and engineers who are working in related areas.
This book starts with the fundamentals of semiconductor diode lasers,
includingprinciplesofdiodelaseroperationaswellasdiode laserstructure
anditsspectralcharacteristics. Thentheessentialpropertiesofsingle-mode
tunablemonolithiclaserdiodesaresummarized. Theprinciples,design,and
practiceoftunableexternalcavitydiodelasersaredescribedwithemphasis
on their wide tuning, narrow linewidth, high power, and extreme stability.
Stabilization of external cavity diode lasers by various methods is briefly
introduced. Numerous examples of applications of tunable external cavity
diodelasersindifferentfields aredeveloped. Abriefoutlookconcludesthis
book. The material contained in this book are representative of state-of-
the-artresearchanddevelopment in tunable externalcavitydiode lasers. I
hope the readers will find this book useful.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank many people who gave
so generously of their time to help me finish this book. First of all, Dr.
Marlan O. Scully was not only my Ph.D. advisor for my dissertation on
laser physics and quantum optics but also illuminated science for me as
well as offered me the opportunity to do postdoctoral research at Texas A
&MUniversity. Withouthissupport,thisbookwouldnotexist. Secondly,
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Shiyao Zhu, who brought me to the family
of Dr. Scully, the best in the world, to study laser physics and quantum
optics. Thirdly, I acknowledge the help from all my colleagues with this
book, including Dr. Alexander S. Zibrov, Dr. Zuhail S. Zubairy, Dr. Yuri
V. Rostovtsev, Dr. George R. Welch, Dr. P. R. Hemmer, Dr. Alexy
Beleinyn, Dr. Edward S. Fry, Dr. Kishor T. Kapale, and special thanks to
Kim Chapin and Terri Tomaszek.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the tireless efforts of the editor and
editorial staff members for making sure that this book was produced.
C. Y. Ye
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Contents
Preface vii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Need for tunable external cavity diode lasers . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Brief introduction of semiconductor diode lasers . . . . . . 2
1.3 Review of tunable diode lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3.1 Tunable monolithic semiconductor lasers . . . . . . . 3
1.3.2 Tunable external cavity diode lasers . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.3 Comparisons of technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. Basics of Semiconductor Diode Lasers 7
2.1 Principle of diode laser operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.1 Absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated
emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.2 Requirements for lasing of semiconductor diode lasers 10
2.2 Semiconductor diode laser structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.1 Homojunction lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.2 Double-heterostructure lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3 Quantum well lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.4 Quantum dots lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Basic characteristics of diode lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3.1 Threshold condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3.2 Output power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.3 Beam divergence and astigmatism. . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3.4 Spectral contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
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