Optically pumped VECSEL operating at 1550 nm

• We present the design and characteristics of an optically pumped vertical external cavity surface emitting laser emitting near 1550 nm. The InP-based laser was grown by Metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy including an InGaAsP gain element and an InP/InGaAsP mirror. The gain element comprises 20 strain compensated quantum wells on top of a distributed Bragg reflector. As an external mirror we used a concave spherical mirror, which also provides the outcoupling of light. Gain is achieved by optical pumping with a high power, 1250 nm fiber Raman laser focused on the gain chip. Essential for achieving high output power is to reduce the temperature of the gain material and this is accomplished by bonding an intra-cavity silicon heat spreader to the surface of the gain element. The maximum output power is 260 mW at multi transverse mode operation and 230 mW at single transverse mode operation with a near Gaussian beam profile (M2=1.22) at 240 K. At room temperature the output power was limited to 12 mW. The maximum output power greatly depends on the operating temperature and studies of pump induced thermal effects show that thermal lensing imposes limitations on the attainable power.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

External cavity

Heat spreader

High power laser

InGaAsP

Optical pumping

Semiconductor laser

Surface-emitting laser

VECSEL

Vertical cavity

Computer simulation

Laser mode locking

Metallorganic vapor phase epitaxy

Mirrors

Optically pumped lasers

Semiconductor lasers

Semiconductor quantum wells

Thermal effects

Thermal gradients

Vertical external surface emitting laser (VECSEL)

Solid state lasers

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)