Thermal characteristics of spontaneous emission spectra from external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

ZHAN Xiaohong; ZHU Renjiang; JIANG Maohua; HU Ping; CUI Yuting; ZHANG Peng

doi:10.7510/jgjs.issn.1001-3806.2016.04.032

Thermal effect is the main reason limiting output power and beam quality of vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs). To optimize the quantum design in active regions of gain chip, decrease thermal effect and upgrade slope efficiencies and output laser power, thermal characteristics of a VECSEL at 980nm wavelength were investigated experimentally by means of photoluminescence. The edge-emitting and surface-emitting spectra at different heatsink temperatures were obtained. The results indicate that the redshift rate of the edge-emitting spectra, which revels the intrinsic properties of quantum wells in active region, is 0.5nm/K with increasing temperature, while the redshift rate of the surface-emitting spectra, which are modulated by multiple-layer structure of the gain chip, is only 0.1nm/K with increasing temperature. The experiments also show that the surface-emitting spectra are split into several modes because of the restriction from the micro-cavities in gain chips of VECSELs. In the design of VECSEL gain chip, according to the above thermal characteristics of VECSELs, performance of a laser could be improved significantly by prebiasing emission wavelengths of quantum wells and cavity lengths of micro-cavities.

Thermal characteristics of spontaneous emission spectra from external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Corresponding author: ZHANG Peng, zhangpeng2010@cqnu.edu.cn

1. College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400047, China;

2. High Education Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Engineering Chongqing, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400047, China;

3. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Functional Materials Chongqing, Chongqing Nornal University, Chongqing 400047, China;

4. Department of Materials Engineering, Sichuan Electromechanical Institute of Vocation and Technology, Panzhihua 617000, China

Received Date: 2015-06-09

Accepted Date: 2015-09-07

Available Online: 2016-07-25

Abstract: Thermal effect is the main reason limiting output power and beam quality of vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs). To optimize the quantum design in active regions of gain chip, decrease thermal effect and upgrade slope efficiencies and output laser power, thermal characteristics of a VECSEL at 980nm wavelength were investigated experimentally by means of photoluminescence. The edge-emitting and surface-emitting spectra at different heatsink temperatures were obtained. The results indicate that the redshift rate of the edge-emitting spectra, which revels the intrinsic properties of quantum wells in active region, is 0.5nm/K with increasing temperature, while the redshift rate of the surface-emitting spectra, which are modulated by multiple-layer structure of the gain chip, is only 0.1nm/K with increasing temperature. The experiments also show that the surface-emitting spectra are split into several modes because of the restriction from the micro-cavities in gain chips of VECSELs. In the design of VECSEL gain chip, according to the above thermal characteristics of VECSELs, performance of a laser could be improved significantly by prebiasing emission wavelengths of quantum wells and cavity lengths of micro-cavities.

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Reference (17)

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Thermal characteristics of spontaneous emission spectra from external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

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