Laser Physics, Vol. 11, No. 8, 2001, pp. 891–896.

SEMICONDUCTOR
Original Text Copyright © 2001 by Astro, Ltd.
Copyright © 2001 by MAIK “Nauka /Interperiodica” (Russia). LASERS

Simple and Effective Modulation of Diode Lasers

P. N. Melentiev, M. V. Subbotin, and V. I. Balykin
Institute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Moscow oblast, 142190 Russia
e-mail: [email protected]
Received February 22, 2001

Abstract—We demonstrate a simple and effective method of a multiple-frequency operation of diode laser by
using the direct rf modulation of injection current. A substantial fraction of the total laser power (up to 40%)
was obtained in a single side band at frequency range from 2.5 to 4 GHz with microwave power less than
26 mW. We have found simple explanation of the high efficiency of modulation of the laser radiation spectrum
based on resonant excitation of a relaxation oscillation.

1. INTRODUCTION microwave frequency modulation in optically-pumped

laser diodes [11]. A high modulation level in the GHz-
Diode lasers have recently found wide application in frequency region can also be attained with the aid of
various fields of modern physics, such as spectroscopy, noncoherent optical feedback [12].
metrology, and atomic physics. Because of their small
size, low cost, and high spectral characteristics, the use Despite the fact that the methods to produce two-
of such lasers has substantially simplified the conduct frequency laser fields are numerous, each of them fea-
of experiments on atomic optics and laser cooling of tures certain shortcomings that make the experiment
atoms. When working with alkali metals featuring a either difficult to perform or costly. Light modulation
hyperfine splitting of their ground state, of principal requires the use of electro-optical and acousto-optical
importance is the use of a two-frequency laser radia- modulators that cost more than the laser diodes them-
selves, as well as powerful rf radiation sources. The use
tion. In that case, radiation at one of the frequencies
of direct rf modulation of the injection current of the
exerts a force action on the atom in hand by exciting it
free running diodes resulted in a low modulation index,
from one of the hyperfine-structure sublevels of the and in the case of diodes in an external cavity, in a
lower state, while radiation at the other frequency pro- reduced output power [8].
vides for a cyclic character of the interaction between
the atom and the laser field. The frequencies of both It is believed that the use of optical feedback makes
lasers here must be sufficiently stable in time in order the lasers more useful in many applications, for exam-
that radiation should be in resonance with the appropri- ple, in atomic physics [13]. However, the development
ate transitions and the frequency difference be equal to of semiconductor laser technology has lead to the
the hyperfine splitting of the ground state of the atom appearance in the commercial laser market of laser
(approx. 3 GHz for 85Rb, 6.8 GHz for 87Rb, and 9 GHz diodes possessing high spectral characteristics in sin-
for 133Cs). Note a number of concrete applications of a gle-frequency operation and continuous frequency tun-
two-frequency field with a frequency difference corre- ing capabilities. Lasers using no optical feedback have
sponding to the hyperfine splitting of atoms: magneto- a higher power output, and in some applications, the
optical traps for alkali metals [1, 2], excitation of fact that they feature a greater line width is preferable
Raman transitions in atomic clocks [3], Raman velocity (e.g., in the work reported in [14] special methods were
selection of atoms [4], and experiment on the exact used to broaden the line width of a semiconductor laser
measurement of the /M ratio [5]. The use of two lasers in order to effectively cool a beam of caesium atoms).
with they separate optical and electronic systems mate- In this paper, we report on an effective method to
rially complicates the experiment, and to stabilize the achieve two- and multiple-frequency lasing in free-run-
difference frequency of the lasers, it is necessary to ning diode lasers with a frequency difference corre-
make use of a special high-frequency electronic system sponding to the hyperfine splitting of 85Rb atoms by
[6]. An alternative method to produce a two-frequency means of direct rf modulation of the diode current. This
laser radiation is to use an rf field: electro-optical mod- method enables one to obtain, in a simple and cheap
ulation of the radiation, high-frequency acousto-optical way, a multiple-frequency laser radiation with a fixed
modulation [7], direct rf modulation of the injection frequency difference for various modes that is needed
current of diode lasers with an external cavity [8, 9], in many applications. The high-frequency modulation
rf modulation of the injection current in a single-fre- of semiconductor lasers is being widely used in optical
quency free-running mode [10], and phase-locked data transmission systems. For example, the authors of

891
892 MELENTIEV et al.

Fabry–Perot
PD
dc Laser
supply diode

rf Fabry–Perot
PD
generator

Oscilloscope PC

Spectrometer

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup used to study the direct rf modulation of diode lasers.

[15] successfully demonstrated modulation in the range Using the laser diode radiation spectra obtained we
0.2–17 GHz in heteroepitaxial–ridge–overgrown dis- found that the diode received around 50% of the rf radi-
tributed feedback lasers. However, in the field of atomic ation power coupled into it.
physics such lasers have found no wide application. We The laser radiation spectrum was analyzed with the
have managed to realize a diode current modulation aid of a spectrometer and a plane and a spherical Fabry–
regime wherein a sizeable proportion of the total laser Perot etalons. The plane Fabry–Perot etalon had a free
power is in side bands. Our method envisages no resort spectral region of ∆νp = 18 GHz and a resolution of
to special skills in microwave techniques, and efficient δνp = 900 MHz, and the spherical etalon, ∆νs = 2 GHz
modulation is achieved with a low-power rf radiation and δνs = 10 MHz, respectively. The resolution of the
source.
spectrometer was 3 GHz, and the radiation spectrum at
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 gives a its output was registered by means of a CCD allowing
description of the experimental setup used to investi- a spectral region of 34 nm to be displayed on a monitor
gate the rf modulation of diode laser injection current. screen.
In Section 3, we present the brief introduction to the
theory of frequency and amplitude modulation spectra
of optical signals. In Section 4 experimental results are 3. RADIATION SPECTRUM IN THE CASE
described and the explanation of the high efficiency of OF DIRECT CURRENT MODULATION
modulation of the laser radiation spectrum is sug- Consider the spectral characteristics of a laser
gested. whose injection current has, in addition to a dc compo-
nent I0, also a component oscillating with a frequency
2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP of ωm , i.e., I = I0 + im sin(ωmt ). The output power of a
laser diode depends on its injection current, and so such
The experimental setup to study the rf modulation of a modulation of the diode current results in the modu-
a diode laser radiation is shown schematically in Fig. 1. lation of the power output of the laser. Since the refrac-
In our experiments, we have used commercially avail- tive index of the active medium of the laser diode and
able laser diodes Model HL7851G (Hitachi) with a its cavity length depend on the diode current, there
maximum power output of 50 mW and a wavelength of takes place both the amplitude and frequency modula-
784.7 nm at 25°C. The threshold laser current is equal tion of the laser radiation spectrum.
to 46.8 mA. Microwave radiation was coupled into the
diode by means of a 60 cm long coaxial cable whose A frequency-modulated optical wave is described
one end was fixed to the diode pins (the pins were short- by the expression
ened to 1 cm) and the other, via a 1-pF capacitor, to a E = E 0 exp [ j ( ω 0 t + β sin ( ω m t ) ) ], (1)
microwave source with a power output up to 26 mW. To
decouple the rf source from the dc.source of the diode β = 2π∆F/ω m , (2)
laser, the latter was connected to the diode via an induc-
tance coil. We took no special measures to match the where ω0 is the laser radiation frequency, ∆F is the
impedances of the coaxial cable and the laser diode. maximum frequency deviation, and β is the modulation

LASER PHYSICS Vol. 11 No. 8 2001

 SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE MODULATION OF DIODE LASERS 893

index. The result of such a modulation is the appear- the rf field power is increased, the radiation power at
ance in the frequency spectrum of the laser radiation of side frequencies grows higher, while that at the carrier
side bands on the left and right of the radiation line ω0 frequency decreases. The spectrum shown in Fig, 2d
at distances that are multiples of ωm . was obtained at a microwave field power of 26 mW. At
The spectrum of the frequency-modulated wave is this value of an rf field power there takes place the exci-
defined by the expansion of Eq. (1) into a Fourier series tation of the third-order side bands, and the radiation
and is expressed in terms of the first-order Bessel func- power in the first side band is several times that at the
tion Jl (β): carrier frequency. Moreover, there can be seen a weak
amplitude modulation of the radiation spectrum: the
E = J 0 ( β )E 0 sin ( ω 0 t ) + J 1 ( β )E 0 sin ( ( ω 0 + ω m )t ) signal intensities in the nth and –nth side bands are not
the same. The right-hand column of Fig. 2 presents the
– J 1 ( β )E 0 sin ( ( ω 0 – ω m )t ) + … + J l ( β )E 0 (3) spectra obtained by fitting Eq. (4) on to the experimen-
× sin ( ( ω 0 + lω m )t ) + ( – 1 ) J l ( β )E 0 sin ( ( ω 0 – lω m )t ).
l tal results given in the left-hand column with the mod-
ulation index β and the degree of modulation M as fit-
The squares of the coefficients of the sines in Eq. (3) ting parameters. One can see from Fig. 2 that Eq. (4)
determine the intensities in the corresponding side yields values which agree with the experimental results
bands of the radiation spectrum. accurate to within 10%.
The amplitude modulation of the laser diode radia- We studied the relationship between the modulation
tion manifests itself in the asymmetry the laser radia- index of the laser radiation and the injection current at
tion spectrum: the intensities in the n th and – n th side a fixed microwave power. We took the ratio γ = I1/I0
bands do not coincide. A frequency- and amplitude- between the first-side-band and carrier-frequency radi-
modulated optical wave is described by the expression ation intensities to serve as a measure of the modulation
E = E 0 [ 1 + M cos ( ω m t ) ] exp [ j(ω 0 t + β sin ( ω m t )) ], (4) index. Such a definition is convenient for practical
applications. In our experiments, the intensity of the
where M is the degree of modulation. The Fourier- second-order side band never exceeded that of the first-
series expansion of Eq. (4) yields the following expres- order side band, and so an increase of the modulation
sion for the amplitude at the fundamental frequency: parameter γ introduced by us corresponds to an
J 0 ( β )E 0 (5) increase of the generally accepted modulation index β
described above (in the general case, when the modula-
the amplitudes in the first and minus first side bands tion index β is so high that the intensity of the first side
being respectively given by band is equal to zero, the modulation parameter γ goes
[ J 1 ( β ) + ( M/2 ) { J 2 ( β ) + J 0 ( β ) } ]E 0 , (6) to zero and thus loses physical meaning). The experi-
mental results obtained are presented in Fig. 3. As can
[ – J 1 ( β ) + ( M/2 ) { J 2 ( β ) + J 0 ( β ) } ]E 0 . (7) be seen, the above relationship is obviously of reso-
nance character. At an injection current of 65 mA the
Thus, in the case of simultaneous amplitude and fre- modulation index reaches its maximum, the parameter
quency modulation of the wave, the amplitude of the γ being equal to 3.2 at an rf power of P = 26 mW; hence,
first side band differs from that of its minus first coun- the intensity in a single side band equals 40% of the
terpart. Expressions (6) and (7) also show that the mod- total laser power.
ulation index β can be obtained from the average ampli-
tudes of the first and minus first side bands, and the We could not find any description of such resonance
degree of modulation, from their difference. behavior in the literature devoted to the modulation of
the radiation of diode lasers. The authors of [8–10]
noted that the intensity of the side bands of the modu-
4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS lated radiation of a diode laser increased as its injection
The characteristic spectra of a Model HL7851G current was reduced, but failed to notice any subse-
(Hitachi) laser diode with the frequency modulation of quent decrease of the modulation index. The increase
the injection current, obtained with the aid of a scan- of the modulation index of the radiation with the
ning plane Fabry–Perot etalon, are presented in the left- decreasing injection current of the laser was explained
hand column of Fig. 2. This series of spectra was by an increase of the modulation index of the current.
obtained at various powers of the microwave field and Indeed, as the dc component of the current I0 is reduced
an injection current modulation frequency of fm = with im remaining unchanged (because of the fixed rf
3 GHz. Figure 2a shows the radiation spectrum of the power coupled in), the modulation index im /I0 of the
laser with the microwave field switched off, and injection current increases, leading to an increase of the
Figs. 2b through 2d, the spectra of the laser with pro- modulation index β. The modulation index of the radi-
gressively increasing microwave field power. It can be ation spectrum, i.e., the ratio between the squares of the
seen from the figures that in the presence of the rf field coefficients of the appropriate terms in Eq. (3), is a
there appear side bands on the left and right of the car- monotonically increasing function (within the consid-
rier frequency at distances that are multiples of fm . As ered interval of β), and so it is difficult to explain within

LASER PHYSICS Vol. 11 No. 8 2001

894 MELENTIEV et al.

β=0
18 GHz
(a)

β = 0.85

(b) 3 GHz

β = 1.23

(c)

β = 1.9

(d)

Fig. 2. Radiation spectra of a diode laser with microwave modulation of the injection current. Left-hand column presents experi-
mental results; right-hand column shows the corresponding theoretical curves. (a) Diode laser radiation spectrum in the absence of
modulation of the injection current; (b) through (d) spectra obtained with progressively increasing modulation index of the injection
current.

the framework of the model suggested the reduction of quency of the microwave field, and this causes the mod-
the modulation index of the radiation spectrum with ulation index to rise. At other injection current values
further decrease of the injection current. the frequency of relaxation oscillations fails to coincide
We think that the behavior of the modulation index with that of the rf field, oscillations are excited only in
found by us is due to the dependence of the relaxation part, and the greater the frequency difference, the lower
oscillation frequency of the diode laser on its injection the modulation index of the radiation spectrum. The
current. At some value of the injection current, the fre- validity of the physical model suggested can be verified
quency of relaxation oscillations coincides with the fre- as follows.

LASER PHYSICS Vol. 11 No. 8 2001

 SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE MODULATION OF DIODE LASERS 895

Index of modulation; γ Frequency, GHz

4
4
3
3
2
2

1
1

0 0
50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
Bias current, mA Current, mA
Fig. 3. Modulation index of the laser radiation (ratio Fig. 4. Relaxation oscillation frequency of a diode laser as a
between the radiation intensities in the first side band and function of the injection current. The solid line depicts the
that at the fundamental frequency) as a function of the injec- theoretical relationship. The data points correspond to
tion current modulated at a frequency of 3 GHz (rf power experimental measurements.
26 mW).
Index of modulation; γ
3.5
Output power, mW
40 3.0
I = 65 mA
35 2.5
30 2.0
25 1.5
20 1.0
15 0.5 I = 90 mA
I = 100 mA
10
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Index of modulation; γ rf power, mW
Fig. 6. Modulation index of the radiation of a diode laser as
Fig. 5. Relationship between the radiation power of a diode a function of the power of the rf field at various injection
laser and the modulation parameter γ. current values.

The injection current dependence of the relaxation by fitting by the chi-square criterion expression (8) to
oscillation frequency is defined by the following the experimental data points. This coefficient proved to
expression [16]: be equal to 4.9 GHz, which also corresponds to the data
presented in [17], where the coefficient K ranged
f r = K I/I th – 1 , (8) between 3.0 and 5.3 GHz. Note we have not that exper-
imental data points at the injection current near Ith .
1 Thus, the physical model suggested describes well
where the coefficient K = ----------- , τs is the lifetime of enough the operation of diode lasers with rf modulation
τ s τ ph and allows their basic constant to be found.
the carriers, and τph is the effective lifetime of photons
An important characteristic of a diode laser is its
in the cavity.
output radiation power. Our measurements showed that
We experimentally determined the injection current high modulation indices were obtained with small
values corresponding to the maximum modulation injection currents, hence with lower output radiation
index of the laser radiation spectrum at various fre- powers. Figure 5 presents the output power of a laser as
quencies of the rf field (in range of our rf generator a function of the modulation index of its radiation spec-
from 2.5 to 4 GHz). The data points thus obtained are trum. It can be seen that frequency modulation at which
depicted by squares in Fig. 4. The solid line in Fig. 4 the intensity in the first side band amounts to 10% of
shows dependence (8) with the coefficient K obtained the intensity at the fundamental frequency can easily be

LASER PHYSICS Vol. 11 No. 8 2001

896 MELENTIEV et al.

achieved at a total laser power of 25 mW. To attain a ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

higher radiation power at a given modulation index, it We express our gratitude to Prof. V.S. Letokhov for
is necessary to increase the power of the rf filed (note his interest in this work and many useful discussions of
that frequency modulation with a 10-percent power in the results obtained. We appreciate technical assistance
the first side band is more than sufficient in many an from Dr. J. Domnin and D. Serebryakov. The work was
application). supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic
The relationship found by us between the modula- Research (project no. 99-02-16215) and Civilian
Research Development Foundation (grant CRDF RP1-
tion index and the rf field frequency at various injection
2261).
current values is presented in Fig. 6. In the variation
interval of the rf power studied, the modulation index
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LASER PHYSICS Vol. 11 No. 8 2001