Tailored Transverse Mode Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser: Hollow Laser Beam Emission through Circle Aperture

Abstract

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers that can be controlled to emit hollow laser beam in certain LP21 mode are proposed and fabricated. A circular inverted surface relief with precisely designed diameter and thickness is introduced through theoretical simulation. The fabricated device shows a stable single LP21 mode operation with excellent robustness of mode and power to temperature. Preliminary analysis attribute the excellent performance of the device to the inverted surface relief, leading to hollow near-field spot distribution.

Design of a multi-laser module for optical pumping in compact atomic gyroscopes

“…The highest reported emitting power of single model VCSEL at the D 1 line of Rb or Cs atoms is about 3 mW. 18,19 Generally, the commercial products have the emitting power up to 1 mW. 15 For atomic magnetometers or atomic clocks, only the alkali metal atoms need to be polarized, thus few hundreds of µW pump power is usually enough.…”