Performance of planar-waveguide external cavity laser for precision measurements

Abstract

A 1542-nm planar-waveguide external cavity laser (PW-ECL) is shown to have a sufficiently low level of noise to be suitable for precision measurement applications. Its frequency noise and intensity noise was comparable or better than the non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO) and fiber laser between 0.1 mHz to 100 kHz. Controllability of the PW-ECL was demonstrated by stabilizing its frequency to acetylene ((13)C(2)H(2)) at 10(-13) level of Allan deviation. The PW-ECL also has the advantage of the compactness of a standard butterfly package, low cost, and a simple design consisting of a semiconductor gain media coupled to a planar-waveguide Bragg reflector.

Narrow-Linewidth Discrete-Mode Laser Diodes for Coherent Communication Applications

“…The wavelength of operation is set by the grating design; minor adjustment of the peak wavelength is possible by changing the device temperature. In [17], a wavelength shift of 0.37 nm was measured by adjusting the temperature over the range 16 to 42 • C; however, mode hops were observed. Full C-band tunability has been demonstrated in an ECL structure in which thermally tunable silicon etalon filters are used to select the operating wavelength [18,19].…”

Progress and Plans for a US Laser System for LISA

“…The PW-ECL's package is much more compact than that of the NPRO, in which a strong magnet limits the size. We based our choice of the PW-ECL on an investigation of number of lasers [5]. Figure 3 shows the frequency noise of the 1064 nm (blue) and 1550 nm (black and red) PW-ECL, and Figure 4 shows the PW-ECL intensity noise in comparison to the NPRO.…”

Frequency stabilized lasers for space applications

“…The laser module, called the Orion, includes drive electronics interfaced to a butter-fly packaged laser. It has been used in several other recent papers on laser frequency stabilization and it's properties documented 24,25,26 . The Orion laser has an internally compensating thermal control loop and an input port to apply a voltage command over a range of ±4V.…”

“…The magnitude and phase characteristics, shown in Figure 2, are from test measurements conducted by Numata 24 . One limitation of the Orion laser module is that it comes packaged with a current driver which limits the laser modulation response to about 65 kHz.…”

“…The inverse process of determining the frequency noise PSD from the line shape does not generate a unique solution and is therefore the baseband frequency PSD must be measured. The frequency noise PSD, shown in Figure3a, is a composite model from manufacturer laser data and the extended range low frequency range from data published in Numata 24 . It includes both the laser and driver circuit dynamics since they come packaged as an integral unit.…”