Surface-emitting Lasers
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Ask RP Photonics for advice on VECSELs. Note that Dr. Paschotta has developed highpower passively mode-locked VECSELs and has the software RP Coating for
designing VECSEL structures.
Acronym: VECSEL
Definition: surface-emitting semiconductor lasers with an external laser resonator
A VECSEL is a semiconductor laser based on a surface-emitting semiconductor gain
chip and a laser resonator which is completed with one or several external optical
elements. Compared with other types of semiconductor lasers, VECSELs can generate
very high optical powers in diffraction-limited beams, i.e., with high beam quality. They
can thus often compete with some doped-insulator solid-state lasers and gas lasers.
Compared with those, their wavelength versatility can be an important advantage.
Figure 1: Schematic of a VECSEL (not to scale) with a semiconductor gain chip and an
external laser resonator. Arrangements for pumping and cooling are not shown. (See
above)
The semiconductor device (gain chip) may contain only a single semiconductor Bragg
mirror and the active region (gain region) with typically several quantum wells (QWs).
The semiconductor structure typically has a total thickness of only a few micrometers
(not including the semiconductor substrate), and is mounted on some kind of heat sink.
The laser resonator is completed with an external mirror, typically in a distance between
a few millimeters and some tens of centimeters. (For good beam quality, the length of
the resonator should not be much smaller than the Rayleigh length of the intracavity
beam.) The laser mode size in the semiconductor chip is essentially defined by the
external resonator setup.
The external resonator may be folded with additional flat or curved mirrors and may
contain additional optical elements, such as an optical filter for single-frequency
operation and/or wavelength tuning, a nonlinear crystal for intracavity frequency
doubling, or a saturable absorber for passive mode locking [2]. It is also possible to
make a monolithic resonator with a microlens, being contacted with the gain chip on
one side and having an output coupler mirror coating on the other surface [21].
Figure 2: Cavity setup of a passively mode-locked VECSEL. (See above)
Both cooling techniques can lead one into a regime where power scaling is possible.
The power scaling procedure for doubling the output power is essentially to apply twice
the pump power to twice the active area. For large areas, the heat flow is dominantly in
the longitudinal direction, and doubling the area also doubles the cooling capability.
This means that device temperatures do not rise significantly for further increased active
areas. However, thermally induced stress effects, which may also affect the beam
quality, do become stronger for higher powers, so that power scaling is not entirely
easy.
As the geometry of a VECSEL gain medium is that of a thin disk, optically pumped
VECSELs are sometimes called semiconductor disk lasers. In fact, they are similar to
solid-state thin-disk lasers, with which they share their concept of power scaling,
despite the different kind of gain medium. It is not clear yet what the power limits for
these types of lasers are.
Considering that such a VECSEL can generate an essentially diffraction-limited beam
while working with a pump source with potentially very poor beam quality (e.g. a highpower diode bar), an optically pumped VECSEL can be considered as an efficient
brightness converter.
temperature gradients, such defects can accumulate and lead to rapid device
degradation. The development and reliable fabrication of high-power VECSEL gain
structures with long lifetime is certainly a difficult task.
The following section discusses additional details related to optical pumping.
Overall, the design (and of course the growth) of VECSEL gain structures is a
sophisticated issue, where many factors have to be taken into account to reach
satisfactory performance. Gain structures for mode-locked operation (see below)
involve additional design details related to chromatic dispersion, which can strongly
affect the pulse shaping process. A good understanding of all these factors and the use
of flexible design software are essential for finding good designs.
[4], i.e., being orders of magnitude higher than achievable with any other mode-locked
semiconductor laser. Typical pulse durations are in the lower picosecond range,
although durations well below 1 ps have also been demonstrated [6,24]. The pulses are
sometimes close to transform limited, but strongly chirped in other cases, depending on
details of chromatic dispersion and other issues.
It has recently been demonstrated that passive mode locking is possible even with a
saturable absorber integrated into the gain structure [17]. Such integrated structures are
difficult to grow and are so far subject to serious performance limitations. However, in
the future they may allow the construction of very compact and potentially cheap modelocked lasers [20].
Note that the details of pulse generation in VECSELs are substantially different from
those of more conventional solid-state bulk lasers or fiber lasers. In particular,
VECSELs exhibit a low saturation fluence and a low upper-state lifetime. This allows
for very high pulse repetition rates without Q-switching instabilities. On the other hand,
it is not possible to obtain high pulse energies, except for synchronous pumping with
another mode-locked laser.
Future Potential
VECSELs appear to have a huge potential for widespread application in various areas,
because they combine several important features:
wavelength versatility
potential for high output power
high beam quality
potentially cheap mass production
The last mentioned advantage results from the fact that VECSEL gain structures can be
fabricated with a wafer technology, where hundreds or thousands of devices are grown
on a single wafer.
These advantages make VECSELs particularly interesting as parts of RGB sources for
digital laser projection displays. The output powers required for consumer products can
be generated with electrically pumped devices, further lowering the cost. Large screen
displays can still use optically pumped lasers.
VECSELs will replace many other solid-state lasers also in other application areas
where special wavelengths (particularly short wavelengths) are required (see e.g. the
article on visible lasers). They are also interesting candidates in cases where ultrashort
pulses are required, provided that one does not need high pulse energies.
Another application of VECSELs is intracavity laser absorption spectroscopy, relying
on VECSEL chips which are optimized for a broad emission bandwidth.
Bibliography
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S. Hoogland et al., Passively mode-locked diode-pumped surface-emitting
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[6] broadband surface-emitting laser with 100 mW output power, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80
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Vancouver
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This encyclopedia is authored by Dr. Rdiger Paschotta, the founder and executive of
RP Photonics Consulting GmbH. Contact this distinguished expert in laser technology,
nonlinear optics and fiber optics, and find out how his technical consulting services (e.g.
product designs, problem solving, independent evaluations, or staff training) could
become very valuable for your business!