Optoelectronics

Arkady Major
ECE 4580, Lecture 11

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 Previous Highlights
Laser Principles
• Laser processes can be described by stimulated absorption,
spontaneous emission and stimulated emission.
• Population inversion can not be achieved in a two-level system.
This can be efficiently done in a three- or four-level systems.
• Laser oscillation or light generation requires an optical feedback
provided by a resonator (cavity).
• Natural lasers existed for many years in stellar atmospheres.
• Conditions required for laser oscillation are loss balancing and
phase.
• Above threshold laser gain is saturated and population inversion
is clamped at a constant value.

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 Outline

• Laser history
• Typical lasers

• Cavity modes

• Diode pumping
• Modes of operation

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 Lasers Today
Applications of lasers

From: Printers, To: Surgery,

CD players, Welding,
Telecoms… Arts…

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 History
A long, long time ago…

Max Planck Niels Bohr Albert Einstein

Photons, Quant. energy Stimulated
1900 levels, 1913 emission, 1917
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Saleh&Teich, Fundamentals of Photonics
 History
Phys. Rev. 1954
FIRST MASER

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 History
A long, long time ago…

Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation – MASER (1954)

Nobel Prize in 1964

( Means of Acquiring Support for Expensive Research )

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Saleh&Teich, Fundamentals of Photonics
 History
A long, long time ago…

Theodore Maiman Ali Javan Kumar Patel

Ruby He-Ne CO2
First laser - 1960 1962 1964

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[Link] [Link] [Link]
 First Laser Paper

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10 sentences that changed our lives
 First Ruby Laser

Krypton
lamp

[Link]
Ruby

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[Link]
 First Laser Patent
Gordon Gould coined the word LASER in 1957!!!

[Link]

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[Link]
 Ruby Laser Patent
Theodore Maiman patented a ruby laser

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[Link]
 Laser Principles
Basic components

Laser radiation has the following properties: monochromaticity, directionality,

coherence, focusability and brightness.

Gain medium
Output

Mirror 1 Mirror 2
R=100% R=30-99%
Pump

Resonator
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Typical Lasers
He-Ne

[Link]

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Wilson&Hawkes, Optoelectronics
Typical Lasers
Ar-ion

More power-hungry than He-Ne

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Wilson&Hawkes, Optoelectronics
 Typical Lasers
CO2
Vibrational modes
TEA
design

CO2 laser efficiency can be up to

30%, while in He-Ne and Ar ion
lasers it is very low, <1%.

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Wilson&Hawkes, Optoelectronics
 Typical Lasers
Free electron laser

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[Link]/~rw/courses
 Typical Lasers
Ruby and Nd:YAG

[Link] [Link]
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[Link]/vqm/laserweb
 Pump Schemes
Side and end (longitudinal) pumping

Resonator
End Pump Gain medium

Output

R=100% for laser R=30-99%

and R~1-5% for pump

Side Pump

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 Typical Lasers
Fiber lasers - keeping light focused

Lenses

Fibers

L >> l

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 Typical Lasers
Fiber lasers and amplifiers

Laser

Amplifier

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[Link]
 Typical Lasers
Er/Er-Yb and Yb fiber lasers

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Koechner&Bass, Solid-State Lasers [Link]
 Pump Sources
Flashlamps vs diodes
Efficiency of the laser systems strongly
Xe flashlamp depends on the overlap between the
pump radiation and the absorption
bands of the gain media.

Pedrotti et. al., Introduction to optics

[Link]

Nd:YAG absorption Diode lasers typically have output

spectrum width of 3-5 nm and therefore
can selectively excite the most intense
absorption bands with high efficiency.

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[Link] [Link]
 Cavity Modes
Resonator (optical cavity) modes are field distributions which reproduce
themselves after one round trip.

Consider a standing wave Longitudinal (axial) modes

L c
q  q
/2 2L

Transverse modes

Consider a beam

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[Link]
 Modes of Operation
Continuous wave
[Link]

Gain

Threshold

 Multiple
oscillating
Resonator  longitudinal
modes
modes

Modes have random phases and amplitudes 25

 Modes of Operation
Continuous wave

Gain
 jq 2t 
A(t )   Aq exp  
Threshold q  T 


P
Resonator 
modes

Modes have random phases and amplitudes time

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 Modes of Operation
Mode locked

Gain
sin 2 Mt / T 
I (t )  A0
Threshold
sin 2 t / T 

 T
I(t)
Resonator 
M=4 T/M
modes

M = 16


time
Modes have the same phases and amplitudes. Pulse widths ~4fs – 100 ps27
 Modes of Operation
Mode locked

Fixed relationship between the phases and magnitudes of oscillating

modes can be achieved by cavity loss modulation (~1-5%).

A0 sin(2π0)

frequency
0
Oscillating [1+sin(2π1)] sin(2π0)
coupled Allowed
modes cavity
modes

0-1 0 0+1 frequency

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 Modes of Operation
Q-switching or Giant pulses
Q-switching, sometimes known as giant pulse formation, is a technique for
obtaining energetic short (but not ultrashort) pulses from a laser by modulating
the intracavity losses (100% modulation) and thus the Q factor of the laser
resonator. The technique is mainly applied for the generation of nanosecond
pulses of high energy and peak power with solid state bulk lasers.

Active Qsw: acousto- or Q-switching principle

electro-optical modulator Nth

Ninv

Passive Qsw: doped glasses,

crystals, or semiconductors

Typical Qsw pulse widths ~1 – 100 ns

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[Link]
 Peak Power
Example
Nd:YAG laser operating without Q switch creates a pulse that lasts 0.5 ms, and
its energy is 5 J. The same laser operating with the Q switch creates a pulse
that lasts 10 ns, and has energy of 1 J. Calculate the peak power of the pulses in
both cases.
E pulse
Ppeak 
 pulse
5
Pulsed pump Ppeak  3
 10 4
 10 kW
0.5 10
1
Q-switched Ppeak  9
 108
 100 MW
10 10
Mode locked and amplified Ti:sapphire lasers can produce 0.1J with
100 fs pulses:
0.1
Ppeak  15
 1012
 1 TW Tera-Watt
100 10
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This is a 108 increase in peak power!!!
 Summary
• Laser development has a unique history.
• Different types of lasers were discussed. The most
common today are CO2 and Nd:YAG.
• Flashlamps can deliver large amounts of energy, but are
rather inefficient. For low energy (or CW) applications
highly efficient diode pumping is used.
• Laser output is a superposition of all oscillating axial
modes. Spatial beam profile is determined by transverse
resonator modes.
• Constructive interference of oscillating modes can result
in ultrashort pulse generation. The process is called
mode-locking.
• Modulation of cavity loss with optical modulator on ~ns
scale is called Q-switching. Typically isolated nanosecond
pulses are produced as a result.
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Next Lecture

Lecture 12

Semiconductor lasers
Structures
DBR
DFB
Operation characteristics
Beam quality

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