2016년 2학기

광전자 공학
Lecture note # 10

담당교수 : 한 상 국
Agenda

• Principle of laser diode

• Heterostructrure LD
• LD Characteristics
• Rate equations
• SOA
• LD for optical fiber communications
• Optical laser amplifier

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LASER

LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of

Radiation

3 Ingredients of Laser:
Optical Resonator, Gain Medium, and Pumping Scheme

Laser Engineering:
Design of Both Gain Medium and the Resonant Cavity

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Photon behavior

Stimulated Spontaneous Stimulated

Absorption Emission Emission

E2

E1

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Population Inversion and Pumping

Normal population population inversion

and pumping & optical amplification

E2

pumping

E1

- electrical excitation
Light Amplification by
- optical excitation Stimulated Emission of
Radiation
- carrier injection
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Optical Amplification

attenuation amplification

transparency

I(z) = I(0)

I(z) = I(0) exp(g z)

I(z) = I(0) exp(-az) g: gain coeff.
a: absorption coeff.

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PN-junction Energy band diagram

Without Bias
 Fermi level is continuous across the diode EFP=EFN
 Built-in voltage  potential energy battier (prevent diffusion from n into p)
Forward bias applied
 Change in the Fermi level  diminishes the built-in potential barrier 
population inversion
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Light Emission in a PN Diode

- Excess energy release in the form of light in direct semiconductors

- Radiative recombination in a forward biased PN junction

e
e eee
EFn
EFp Light
hhh
h
h
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Energy band diagram

 At low temp. (T=0K)

 States between Ec and Efn are filled with e, Efp and Ev are empty
 Eg<Photon<Efn-Efp  stimulated emission, Photon>Efn-Efp  absorped
 As temp. increase the F-D function spreads the energy distributions  reduction in
optical gain
 Optical gain depends on Efn-Efp (applied voltage)
 Injection pumping [electric pumping]: pumping by forward diode current

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Optical Cavity in PN diode
 For lasing P
: population inversion + optical cavity
 Optical resonator  provides
continuous coherent radiation N


m L n=1 n = neff
2n r1 r2
 Reflected photons stimulate more facet facet
photon of the same frequency reflection reflection
 Wavelength of the radiation is determined by the cavity length
 Resonant frequency = mode of the cavity m
 Separation between possible modes mode
m
m
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 Homojunction LD

Homojunction-use same direct BG material

Output spectrum from laser diode
:depends on optical cavity & optical gain
vs. wavelength
Lasing condition obtained by
:optical gain overcome photon losses
(threshold current Ith)
Below Ith  spontaneous emission
 incoherent photons

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Diode current
Diode current
Transparency current 𝐼𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠
:stimulated emission=absorption  transparent
above 𝐼𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠  optical gain  not yet CW coherent radiation
Threshold current 𝐼𝑡ℎ
:lasing oscillation-optical gain overcome photon losses

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Heterojunction LD
 Main problem of homo-junction LD  threshold current density is too
high
 Threshold current density can be reduced by hetero-structure
 To reduce threshold current density
1.confine e & h in narrow region around the junction  less current
needed to population inversion
2. build a dielectric waveguide around the optical gain region to
increase photon concentration  reduce loss of photon
 We need Carrier confinement & Photon confinement
 Double heterostructure (DH) : two junctions between different
semiconductor materials with different band-gaps
 Active layer : in which lasing recombination take place

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Heterojunction LD – Material Selection

Material selection: lattice

matching & proper
energy gap

- Carrier confined to GaAs by

barrier
- Wider gap semiconductors have
lower refractive index
- Photon confined by high RI
- Carrier and photon confinement in
narrow gap active layers

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Heterojunction LD – Guiding type
Gain guided
:current density is not uniform laterally
current confined within paths 2 and 3
optical gain highest where the current density greatest
Index guided
:active layer buried within a wider BG materials buried DH structure
active layer is surrounded by lower index  behaves as a waveguide
optical power is confined to the waveguide

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 LD Chracteristics
 Output spectrum depends on two factors
: nature of the optical resonator & optical gain curve
 Optical resonator : Fabry-Perot cavity (L, W, H)
length L : determines the longitudinal mode separation
width W & height H : determines the lateral modes
 If the transverse dimensions (W & H) are sufficiently small
: only thelowest transver mode (TEM00)  single mode operation

g

Power
m
mode

f
m
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Temperature Dependence
The LD output ch. tend to be
temperature sensitive
As the temp. increase the
threshold current increase
steeply
The output spectrum also
change
: in case of single mode LD,
the peak wavelength jump at
certain temp.
(mode hopping)
another mode fulfills the
lasing condition

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LD Slope efficiencies
 Slope efficiency [W/A or W/mA]: optical power in terms of current above
the threshold current (<1W/A)
: depends on semiconductor packaging & LD structure

Po
 slope 
I  I th
 Conversion efficiency
: overall efficiency of the conversion from the input electrical power to
the output optical power (30~40%)

Po
overall 
Pe
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Light-emitting Diode (LED) for Optical Fiber
Communications
 Datacom through air & multimode fiber
 Very inexpensive

 Key characteristics
 Most common for 780, 850, 1300 nm
 Total power up to a few W
 Spectral width 30 to 100 nm
 Coherence length 0.01 to 0.1 mm
 Little or not polarized
 Large NA ( poor coupling into fiber)

P peak

P -3 dB
BW

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 FP (Fabry-Perot) LD
 Multiple longitudinal mode (MLM) spectrum
 “Classic” semiconductor laser P peak
 First fiberoptic links (850 or 1300 nm)
 Today: short & medium range links
 Key characteristics
 Most common for 850 or 1310 nm
 Total power up to a few mw
 Spectral width 3 to 20 nm P
 Mode spacing 0.7 to 2 nm
 Highly polarized
Threshold
 Coherence length 1 to 100 mm
 Small NA ( good coupling into fiber)
I

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 Distributed Feedback (DFB) Laser

 Single longitudinal mode (SLM) spectrum

 High performance telecommunication laser
 Most expensive (difficult to manufacture)
 Long-haul links & DWDM systems
 Key characteristics P peak
 Mostly around 1550 nm
 Total power 3 to 50 mw SMSR
 Spectral width 10 to 100 MHz (0.08 to 0.8 pm)
 Sidemode suppression ratio (SMSR): > 50 dB
 Coherence length 1 to 100 m
 Small NA ( good coupling into fiber)

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Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) Laser

Bragg wavelength

DFB-LD wavelength
B 2
m  B  ( M  1)
2nL
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Cleaved-coulped-cavity(c3) laser
Two different laser optical cavities L and D coupled
Two lasers are pumped by different currents

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Semiconductor-Optical-Amplifier(SOA)1

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Semiconductor-Optical-Amplifier(SOA)2

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Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL)

 Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) Mirrors

 Alternating layers of semiconductor material
 40 to 60 layers, each  / 4 thick
 Beam matches optical acceptance needs of fibers more closely
 Key properties
 Wavelength range 780 to 980 nm (gigabit ethernet)
 Spectral width: <1nm
 Total power: >-10 dBm
 Coherence length:10 cm to10 m
 Numerical aperture: 0.2 to 0.3

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LD Longitudinal Mode Selection Mechanism

gth gth
gth
material material material
gain gain gain
  

  

uniform grating QWS-DFB laser

FP laser DFB laser

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Major Features of Diode Lasers

• Direct Electrical Pumping

- high efficiency (~50%; cf.1-10% of other lasers)
- high-speed direct modulation capability
• High Material Gain
- short cavity length: high-speed, small size (<1cm)
- small active volume: less coherent, highly divergent beam
- low facet reflectivity allowed, high power & efficiency
• Broad Gain Spectrum
- freedom in cavity design, tunablity, multimode operation

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