High-power (&gt;0.5-W CW) diode-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor lasers with circular TEM/sub 00/ beams

Kuznetsov, M.; Hakimi, F.; Sprague, Robert A.; Mooradian, A.

doi:10.1109/68.605500

Cited by 574 publications

(280 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) [1] passively modelocked [2] with an intra-cavity semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [3][4][5] and Modelocked Integrated eXternal-cavity SurfaceEmitting Lasers (MIXSEL) [6,7] benefit from the advantages of diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSL), such as excellent beam quality and high-average output power at high repetition rates [2] and do not suffer from Q-switching instabilities [8]. The semiconductor gain chip enables bandgap engineering to provide a high degree of flexibility in the operation wavelength [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally verified pulse formation model for high-power femtosecond VECSELs

et al. 2013

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Optically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (OP-VECSELs), passively modelocked with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), have generated the highest average output power from any sub-picosecond semiconductor laser. Many applications, including frequency comb synthesis and coherent supercontinuum generation, require pulses in the sub-300-fs regime. A quantitative understanding of the pulse formation mechanism is required in order to reach this regime while maintaining stable, high-average-power performance. We present a numerical model with which we have obtained excellent quantitative agreement with two recent experiments in the femtosecond regime, and we have been able to correctly predict both the observed pulse duration and the output power for the first time. Our numerical model not only confirms the soliton-like pulse formation in the femtosecond regime, but also allows us to develop several clear guidelines to scale the performance toward shorter pulses and higher average output power. In particular, we show that a key VECSEL design parameter is a high gain saturation fluence. By optimizing this parameter, 200-fs pulses with an average output power of more than 1 W should be possible.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally verified pulse formation model for high-power femtosecond VECSELs

et al. 2013

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“…It will be shown that a trade off between the conflicting optical and electrical optimization has to be found and we derive an optimized design resulting in guidelines for the design of EP-VECSELs which are compatible with passive mode locking. Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) [1] are of high scientific and industrial interest due to their large fundamental transverse mode output power, scaling with the device radius, the near diffraction limited output beam, and the suitability for intracavity frequency conversion [2] and passive mode locking [3,4]. Passive mode locking of an optically pumped VECSEL has been demonstrated with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [5] in a folded external cavity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the design of electrically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

et al. 2008

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Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) yield an excellent beam quality in conjunction with a scalable output power. This paper presents a detailed numerical analysis of electrically pumped VECSEL (EP-VECSEL) structures. Electrical pumping is a key element for compact laser devices. We consider the optical loss, current confinement, and device resistance. The main focus of our investigation is on the achievement of an adequate radial carrier distribution for fundamental transverse mode operation. It will be shown that a trade off between the conflicting optical and electrical optimization has to be found and we derive an optimized design resulting in guidelines for the design of EP-VECSELs which are compatible with passive mode locking. Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) [1] are of high scientific and industrial interest due to their large fundamental transverse mode output power, scaling with the device radius, the near diffraction limited output beam, and the suitability for intracavity frequency conversion [2] and passive mode locking [3,4]. Passive mode locking of an optically pumped VECSEL has been demonstrated with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) [5] in a folded external cavity. After the first passively mode locked VECSEL was demonstrated in the year 2000 [6], the milestone of nearly 1 W average output power was achieved in 2002 with improved thermal management [7]. The pulses in the early experiments were often strongly chirped, but mode-locking dynamics in VECSELs revealed that a soliton-like pulse-shaping mechanism in the positive-dispersion regime can help to generate short pulses with low chirp. With the aid of intracavity dispersion control, it then became possible to obtain nearly transform limited picosecond pulses with record high output powers of 2.1 W at 4 GHz [4] and 1.4 W at 10 GHz [8]. The pulse width could be u Fax: +41-44-633-10-59, E-mail: keller@phys.ethz.ch significantly shortened to the sub-500-fs regime using faster SESAMs based on the ac Stark effect [9]. The vertical integration of the absorber into one monolithic structure with the gain quantum wells (QWs) is an important step towards higher pulse repetition rates with decreased cavity size and wafer-scale integration. This has been achieved for the first time and is referred to as the mode-locked integrated-externalcavity surface-emitting laser (MIXSEL) [10]. So far, all these devices have been optically pumped, which involves a more complex optical setup. Thus, an important step towards waferscale fabrication of compact ultrafast VECSELs is the design of electrically pumped VECSEL (EP-VECSEL) structures. This is challenging because of optical losses and Joule heating in the doped layers. Nevertheless, continuous-wave (cw) EP-VECSELs have been demonstrated [11,12] and output powers of up to 900 mW have been obtained with a 150-µm device diameter in multimode operation [13]. Also, mode locking with down to 15-ps FWHM pulse width [14] and a wafer-scale EP-VECSEL w...

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“…A 3-W 808-nm broad-stripe diode pumped the device, which could be operated with a 4% output coupler. These authors reported a maximum output power of 0.69 W in a predominantly TEM 11 beam; they were also able to demonstrate TEM 00 operation with 0.37 W of output power coupled into a single-mode optical fibre [3].…”

Section: High Power Operationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Vertical-external-cavity semiconductor lasers

Tropper¹,

Foreman²,

Garnache³

et al. 2004

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

183

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Surface-emitting semiconductor lasers can make use of external cavities and optical pumping techniques to achieve a combination of high continuous-wave output power and near-diffraction-limited beam quality that is not matched by any other type of semiconductor source. The ready access to the laser mode that the external cavity provides has been exploited for applications such as intra-cavity frequency doubling and passive mode-locking. The purpose of this Topical Review is to outline the operating principles of these versatile lasers and summarize the capabilities of devices that have been demonstrated so far. Particular attention is paid to the generation of near-transform-limited sub-picosecond pulses in passively mode-locked surface-emitting lasers, which are potentially of interest as compact sources of ultrashort pulses at high average power that can be operated readily at repetition rates of many gigahertz.

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High-power (>0.5-W CW) diode-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor lasers with circular TEM/sub 00/ beams

Cited by 574 publications

References 8 publications

Experimentally verified pulse formation model for high-power femtosecond VECSELs

Experimentally verified pulse formation model for high-power femtosecond VECSELs

On the design of electrically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Vertical-external-cavity semiconductor lasers

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