Absorber and gain chip optimization to improve performance from a passively modelocked electrically pumped vertical external cavity surface emitting laser

Journal Article · Mon Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4870048· OSTI ID:22258573

Mangold, M.; Pallmann, W. P.; Golling, M.; Tilma, B. W.; Keller, U. ^[1]; Gronenborn, S.; Moench, H.; Weichmann, U. ^[2]; Miller, M. ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich (Switzerland)
2. Philips Technologie GmbH Photonics Aachen, Steinbachstrasse 15, 52074 Aachen (Germany)
3. Philips Technologie GmbH U-L-M Photonics, Lise-Meitner-Strasse 13, 89081 Ulm (Germany)

We present an electrically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (EP-VECSEL) modelocked with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) with significantly improved performance. In different cavity configurations, we present the shortest pulses (2.5 ps), highest average output power (53.2 mW), highest repetition rate (18.2 GHz), and highest peak power (4.7 W) to date. The simple and low-cost concept of EP-VECSELs is very attractive for mass-market applications such as optical communication and clocking. The improvements result from an optimized gain chip from Philips Technologie GmbH and a SESAM, specifically designed for EP-VECSELs. For the gain chip, we found a better trade-off between electrical and optical losses with an optimized doping scheme in the substrate to increase the average output power. Furthermore, the device's bottom contact diameter (60 μm) is smaller than the oxide aperture diameter (100 μm), which favors electro-optical conversion into a TEM{sub 00} mode. Compared to optically pumped VECSELs we have to increase the field enhancement in the active region of an EP-VECSEL which requires a SESAM with lower saturation fluence and higher modulation depth for modelocking. We therefore used a resonant quantum well SESAM with a 3.5-pair dielectric top-coating (SiN{sub x} and SiO{sub 2}) to enhance the field in the absorber at the lasing wavelength of 980 nm. The absorption bandedge at room temperature is detuned (965 nm) compared to the resonance (980 nm), which enables temperature-tuning of the modulation depth and saturation fluence from approximately 2.5% up to 15% and from 20 μJ/cm{sup 2} to 1.1 μJ/cm{sup 2}, respectively.

• OSTI ID: 22258573
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 104; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
ELECTRICAL PUMPING
GAIN
LASER CAVITIES
LASERS
PERFORMANCE
SURFACES