High power laser sources are used in a large variety of applications for materials processing. The most common are
welding, soldering, cutting, drilling, laser annealing, micro-machining, ablation and micro-lithography. Beside the right
choice of the suitable laser source adequate high performance optics for the generation of the appropriate beam profile
are essential. Widely used geometries are square, rectangular light fields or light lines with homogeneous intensity
distributions. The whole devolution from optical design and engineering to products and applications is demonstrated.
LIMO has developed powerful software tools founded on Maxwell's Equations taking into account all important
physical aspects of the beam shaping task. Various beam shaping principles, e.g. phase shifting for single-mode lasers,
beam mixing for multi-mode lasers and other beam transformation schemes are discussed. Based on LIMO's unique
production technology with computer-aided design free-form micro-lens surfaces can be structured cost-effectively on
wafer-basis. Thus, the theoretically optimized surfaces can be transformed with high precision into a large range of
materials. Typical products, their beam profiles and the respective application results are exemplarily shown for optical
micro-lithography, micro-machining with Nd:YAG lasers and their harmonics as well as a-Si thin film annealing for flat
panel display production.
We summarize our ultrafast switching results in GaAs multiple quantum well directional couplers and report on coherent pulse propagation in single strip-loaded GaAs multiple quantum well waveguides. The transmitted pulse shape is measured by sum frequency generation cross-correlation and compared with calculations based on the coupled semiconductor Bloch and Maxwell's equations.
Modified fabrication technique has been developed to improve the performance of GaAs/A1GaAs
MQW nonlinear directional couplers for all-optical picosecond and subpicosecond switching and
modulation.
A nonlinear directional coupler (NLDC) capable of switching data streams and demultiplexing signals
could be an important component in switching networks. Reliable and reproducible performance depends
on the proper technique used to fabricate these devices. Previously, we demonstrated all-optical
switching in GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) nonlinear directional couplers using 10 ps
pulses1 where the origin of the nonlinearities was due to photo-excited real carriers. The contrast of the
PS switching was from 1 : 3 to 3 : 1 . We have also observed subpicosecond all-optical modulation in the
same device using 150 fs pulses2 where the origin of such ultrafast modulation is attributed o optical
Stark effect3. The contrast of the fs modulation was from 1 :2.3 to 1 : 1 .2. Recently, we improved the
fabrication procedures. This results in improved performances in both the picosecond and subpicosecond
regimes.
The MQW waveguide structure was designed to sustain a single planar mode for wavelength close to
the absorption edge using a four-layer waveguide model. The effective index method4 was then used to
model the strip-loaded waveguide performance to ensure single mode operation. The sample is grown by
molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and has 1 .2 am thick guiding region which consists of 60 periods of
alternating 100 GaAs wells/lOO Al023Ga72As barriers. The guiding in the direction perpendicular
to the MQW is provided by the AlGaAs layers above and below the MQW region whereas the
confinement in the horizontal direction is facilitated by the 2 ,am wide ridge etched into the top
AlGaAs layer. The ridge structures are formed by first patterning the sample through contact-print
photolithography using positive photoresist (KTI 820), and then reactive ion etching the top AlGaAs
layer with photoresist mask. The etch process uses pure BC!3 as an etching gas flowing at 25 sccm
with a pressure of 45 mTorr. The power density delivered is 0.43 W/cm2 and the self bias potential is
1 82 V. A Si wafer is laid on the bottom electrode on top of which the sample is placed. After etching,
the couplers are cleaved on both ends to allow light to be end-fire coupled into the guides.
We have since improved the fabrication procedures. First, previous studies show that
photolithography is a problem when the guide separation is only 1 m whereas a guide separation of 4
m is too large for efficient coupling. A mask is thus made that consists only of guides separated by 2
or 3 'am. Second, more care is taken to prevent dust from falling on the sample during the
photolithographic process in our non-clean lab environment. Third, a new cleaving device is assembled
using a phonographic needle and an x-y-z translation stage. With the help of a stereo microscope,
devices as short as 100 1am can be cleaved with high-quality end surfaces. See Fig. 1. These
improvements not only enhance our yield so that nonlinear coupling behavior is observed in almost
every pair of guides but also allows the light to be coupled into each guide with ease, greatly
shortening the alignment time.
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