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Lasers Chapter 11

This document summarizes key concepts about laser cavities and modes from a textbook chapter. It discusses longitudinal and transverse cavity modes, properties of Fabry-Perot resonators including allowed frequencies and finesse, Gaussian beam propagation and transverse mode patterns, and how different laser modes can affect the gain medium through spectral and spatial hole burning. Examples are provided to illustrate concepts like transverse mode distributions and the Brewster angle arrangement.

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136 views31 pages

Lasers Chapter 11

This document summarizes key concepts about laser cavities and modes from a textbook chapter. It discusses longitudinal and transverse cavity modes, properties of Fabry-Perot resonators including allowed frequencies and finesse, Gaussian beam propagation and transverse mode patterns, and how different laser modes can affect the gain medium through spectral and spatial hole burning. Examples are provided to illustrate concepts like transverse mode distributions and the Brewster angle arrangement.

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ansarixxx
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lasers

PH 645/ OSE 645/ EE 613


Summer 2010 Section 1: T/Th 2:45- 4:45 PM
Engineering Building 240
John D. Williams, Ph.D.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
406 Optics Building - UAHuntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899
Ph. (256) 824-2898 email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tues/Thurs 2-3PM

JDW, ECE Summer 2010


Chapter 11: Laser Cavity Modes
• Longitudinal Cavity Modes
– Fabry-Perot resonator
– Fabry-Perot cavity modes
– Longitudinal modes
– Mode number
• Transverse Laser Cavity Modes
– Diffraction integral
– Plane parallel mirrors
– Curved mirrors
– Spatial distributions
– Gaussian shamed modes
• Properties of Laser modes
– Mode characteristics
– Effects of mode on gain medium
profile Cambridge University Press, 2004
Chapter 11 Homework: 2,4,5,6,8,11,12 ISBN-13: 9780521541053

All figures presented from this point on were taken directly from (unless otherwise cited):
W.T. Silfvast, laser Fundamentals 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Fabry-Perot Resonator
• Consider two partially reflective mirrors
parallel to one another.
• The mirrors may be nearly entirely reflective,
but will always have some transmission value
• Let us consider light incident on the mirror at
an angle θ
• Light reflecting back and forth between the
mirrors is depicted here

Mirror plane 1 Mirror plane 2


Fabry-Perot Resonator
• Let us consider light incident on the mirror at
an angle θ
• Light reflecting back and forth between the
mirrors can be modeled at an angle 2θ
• The reflected light follows an additional path
length of a+b

Mirror plane 1 Mirror plane 2


Fabry-Perot Resonator
• The additional path length generates a phase change in the propagating wave.
• This can be shown by taking an incident plane wave, eikz , where k is the wave vector and z is the
incident propagation direction
• One can express the phase factor as

• Furthermore, one can sum all of the transmitted amplitudes as


Fabry-Perot Resonator
• The transmitted intensity of the wave is

• Where the exponential term represents the phase change upon two reflections

• If we define the reflectivity of the mirror, R, and transmission, T, then one can write

Airy Function
Fabry-Perot Resonator Intensity
Fabry-Perot Resonator
• Each of the Airy function peaks is identical in shape for each value of Φmax
• Thus, we can solve for the FWHM by considering the peak at n = 0
• For values of R > 0.6, we can approximate the sin(Φ/2) as Φ/2.
• The value of Φ at which the Airy function reduces to its half max is referred to as Φ’
Fabry-Perot Resonator
• This value, F, is called the finesse and is solved in a two mirror system as

• Let us consider the simple case where the incident angle , θ, is zero and the phase change, φr, =0

Frequency difference
between allowed modes
Fabry-Perot Resonator Intensity

Note: use this value for ν if the gain medium is placed with
a gap distance d-L between the medium and the mirrors
Fabry-Perot Resonator
• The frequency spread of the FWHM can be solved as:

• For mirrors with unequal reflectivity, the function is slightly more complex

• The quality factor, Q


Fabry-Perot Cavity Modes
• For a cavity with refractive index = 1,

• Consider the n = 1 mode of a 0.1 m cavity with Reflectivity 0.99

• For visible light, ν is approx 5x1014/s so nmax is something like 35,000


• In order to reflect with a high surface finish, the surface quality must be better than λ/10
• Furthermore, the reflective intensity of the cavity at the operating frequency should be 99 times
greater than [1-0.01]/0.01, thus the total cavity intensity at the desired wavelength s 199 times
greater than the light transmitted through the mirror
• Therefore light energy is essentially stored within the cavity at wavelengths with high reflectivity
Longitudinal Cavity Modes
Longitudinal Cavity Modes
Longitudinal Cavity Modes
Transverse Cavity Modes
• So far we have considered a plane wave traveling through a Fabry-Perot cavity
• However, we don’t have a plane wave.
• We have a wave propagating and being generated in a medium that is most accurately described
as a Gaussian beam
• Therefore, we must consider longitudinal and transverse effects acting on the wave as it
propagates
Fresnel Kirchhoff Diffraction Integral
• Let us begin by first examining the properties of a Gaussian beam. We can develop these
properties by extracting the near field diffraction of a plane wave exiting a small aperture
• Let Up be the wave function exiting the aperture
• Let Uo be the wave front incident
Fresnel Kirchhoff Diffraction Integral in
Fabry-Perot Cavities
• Consider two circular mirrors
Fresnel Kirchhoff Diffraction Integral in
Fabry-Perot Cavities
• Equivalence of two passes
Fresnel Kirchhoff Diffraction Integral in
Fabry-Perot Cavities
• Equivalence of two passes
Transverse Modes Using Curved Mirrors
• The same method can be applied to two curved mirrors to evaluate the diffractive losses in the
system.
• The Fresnel number is a geometric parameter that allows one to quickly evaluate the fractional
losses per pass in the mirror system based on the integral previously described
Example 2: TEM mode distributions
Example 2: TEM Modes 00 and 01
Transverse Mode Frequencies

• Typical transverse modes are slightly off axis of the longitudinal modes
• Thus, there is significantly greater differences between longitudinal and transverse modes
• However, at least one transverse mode will always exist in a cavity of one or more longitudinal
modes
Transverse Mode Patterns in
Circular Symmetric Cavities
Transverse Mode Patterns in XY
Symmetric Cavities
Brewster Angle within a Cavity
• In the x-y symmetric mode distribution, the
modes demonstrated a preferred orientation
due to the angle of incidence with respect to
the mirror
• This is determined by radially nonsymmetric
loss within the cavity
• One can use the Brewster angle window
arrangement shown below to minimize the
reflective losses associated with beam
propagation between the gain medium (or
amplifier) and the mirrors
• At the Brewster’s angle there is no loss of
reflectivity for polarized light parallel to the
slide as shown in the figure
• Furthermore, there is only 15% loss of all
transverse light perpendicular to the slide
Mode Properties
• Spatial Dependence
– Each mode in a typical two mirror cavity is associated with a mode number, n
– Each transverse mode must be associated with a standing longitudinal wave and
therefore is a specific longitudinal mode number, n, as well as a transverse mode
numbers l and m
• Frequency Dependence
– Each mode has a slightly different frequency
– Transverse modes will have the same n number but slightly different frequency due to l
and m mode numbers
– Longitudinal mode numbers, n, typically have a larger frequency difference than l and m
• Mode Competition
– For homogeneous broadening, the waves associated with different modes are all
competing for the same upper laser level species
– Thus each mode is attempting to reach saturation
– The mode at the center of the gain profile will reach saturation first causing other modes
to decrease in amplitude
– In homogeneous broadening, it is common to saturate one longitudinal mode yet leave
transverse modes associated with that mode gaining b/c of their distinctly different
spatial regions
Mode Properties
• Effects of Modes on Gain Medium Profile
– Modes that reach gain saturation
intensity generate significant
increases in gain over the short
spectral width of the mode
– Two effects of mode competition
can have a significant impact on this
condition
• Spectral Hole Burning
• Spatial Hole Burning
Spectral Hole Burning
• Spectral Hole Burning: mode
competition can lead to multiple laser
output modes, causing the amplifier
gain to be decreased dramatically at
each of the competing frequency bands
• This gain decrease is observed in
Doppler broadened emissions where
the width of the Doppler broadened
beam gives rise to the output spectral
density of the laser
Spatial Hole
Burning
• Consider a single standing wave longitudinal mode
developed in a 2 mirror homogenously broadened
laser cavity
• The intensity of the incident light will be zero at
every half wavelength interval within the cavity
• There is therefore no stimulated emission present
at those notes where the electric field is zero.
• The gain profile therefore has a periodic spatial
variation within the gain medium that is 90 degrees
out of phase with the laser intensity profile within
the gain medium
• It is possible that higher order transverse modes
might take advantage of this periodicity to generate
strong secondary modes

• Ring lasers were developed in attempt to recycle


the light back into the system with a slight phase
error in attempt to generate more gain in the
primary mode

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