Widely tunable laser sources are desirable for many experiments and applications. The goal of this work is to develop sources of high frequency stability, low frequency noise, and tunability through the entire gain bandwidth of the diode laser without mode hops. Mode hops are discrete jumps in both amplitude and phase that are detrimental in many tunable laser applications. Tuning performance and analysis of grazing incidence external cavity lasers are emphasized in this paper. The external cavity diode laser studied in this work is an effective low noise platform for accessing a wide range of elements from the periodic table for atomic absorption experiments such as process control and monitoring. Frequency doubling can be used to reach many elements not accessible at the diodes fundamental wavelength range. Vapor deposition, wavelength division multiplexing, coherent communications, and fundamental research are additional applications for widely tunable external cavity diode lasers.
Semiconductor master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) devices based on the resonant transmission properties of resonant-optical-waveguide (ROW) antiguided structures are shown to be promising candidates for stable, coherent, high-power sources. A novel mast oscillator for this type of MOPA is proposed: the three-core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) diode laser. This device is also based on ROW antiguided structures and can easily be integrated with the power amplifier. Three-core ARROW lasers are shown to have large intermodal discrimination against unwanted modes, and when used as the maser oscillator of a ROW-MOPA, a uniform near-field, flat-phasefront, diffraction-limited beam output is obtained. Experimentally, 350 mW diffraction-limited beam operation has been demonstrated in ROW-MOPA devices without extremely low AR coatings.
Recent progress on the monolithic integration of an index-guided single-lateral-mode preamplifier with a tapered semiconductor optical amplifier is reported. The suppression of the amplified spontaneous emission as a function of coupled input power and bias current is studied. With a coupled input power of only 1.2 mW, more than 1 W amplified output power is obtained at 810 nm, corresponding to 29-dB internal large-signal gain. The far-field pattern is dominated by a diffraction-limited single lobe. A new self-aligned dissipating grid, which improves the amplified- signal-to-total-output-power ratio from 72% to over 85%, is described.
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