Integrated coherent combining of angled-grating broad-area lasers

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated coherent beam combining of angled-grating broad-area lasers in a completely integrated approach. We obtained the simultaneous coherent beam combining and single transverse mode operation on a single chip through the integrated coupling regions and the transverse Bragg resonance (TBR) gratings, respectively. The proposed combining method can be easily extended to a zigzag-like laser array. We analyzed the scalability of the zigzag-like combining structure and compared it with other coherent combining methods. Two and six angled-grating broad-area lasers are fabricated and coherently combined by use of the proposed method. The high contrast interference fringes within an overall single lobe envelope in the measured far field prove that the emitters in the array are indeed coherently combined. By p-side-down bonding, we obtained over 1 W output power with over 90% combining efficiency in the two coherently combined lasers.

Keywords

semiconductor lasers / angled-grating broad-area lasers / coherent beam combining / high power / high brightness

References

[1] Hanke C. High power semiconductor laser diodes. Informacije Midem-Journal of Microelectronics Electronic Components and Materials, 2001, 31(4): 232–236

[2] Ziegler M, Tomm J W, Zeimer U, Elsaesser T. Imaging catastrophic optical mirror damage in high-power diode lasers. Journal of Electronic Materials, 2010, 39(6): 709–714

[3] DeMars S D, Dzurko K M, Lang R J, Welch D F, Scrifres D R, Hardy A. Angled-grating distributed feedback laser with 1 W CW single-mode diffraction-limited output at 980 nm. In: Proceedings of Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1996. 1996, 77–78

[4] DWong V V, DeMars S D, Schoenfelder A,Lang R J . Angled-grating distributed-feedback laser with 1.2 W CW single-mode diffraction-limited output at 10.6 μm. In: Proceedings of Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on Laser and Electro-Optics, 1998. 1998, 34–35

[5] Paschke K, Bogatov A, Bugge F, Drakin A E, Fricke J, Guther R, Stratonnikov A A, Wenzel H, Erbert G, Trankle G. Properties of ion-implanted high-power angled-grating distributed-feedback lasers. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2003, 9(5): 1172–1178

[6] Fan T Y. Laser beam combining for high-power, high-radiance sources. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2005, 11(3): 567–577

[7] Wirth C, Schmidt O, Tsybin I, Schreiber T, Eberhardt R, Limpert J, Tünnermann A, Ludewigt K, Gowin M, ten Have E, Jung M. High average power spectral beam combining of four fiber amplifiers to 8.2 kW. Optics Letters, 2011, 36(16): 3118–3120

[8] Andrusyak O, Smirnov V, Venus G, Glebov L. Beam combining of lasers with high spectral density using volume Bragg gratings. Optics Communications, 2009, 282(13): 2560–2563

[9] Chann B, Huang R K, Missaggia L J, Harris C T, Liau Z L, Goyal A K, Donnelly J P, Fan T Y, Sanchez-Rubio A, Turner G W. Near-diffraction-limited diode laser arrays by wavelength beam combining. Optics Letters, 2005, 30(16): 2104–2106

[10] Vijayakumar D, Jensen O B, Ostendorf R, Westphalen T, Thestrup B. Spectral beam combining of a 980 nm tapered diode laser bar. Optics Express, 2010, 18(2): 893–898

[11] Welch D F, Scifres D, Cross P, Kung H, Streifer W, Burnham R D, Yaeli J. High-power (575 mW) single-lobed emission from a phased-array laser. Electronics Letters, 1985, 21(14): 603–605

[12] Kapon E, Katz J, Yariv A. Supermode analysis of phase-locked arrays of semiconductor lasers. Optics Letters, 1984, 9(4): 125–127

[13] Welch D F, Cross P S, Scifres D R, Streifer W, Burnham R D. High-power (CW) in-phase locked “Y” coupled laser arrays.. Applied Physics Letters, 1986, 49(24): 1632–1634

[14] Botez D, Hayashida P, Mawst L J, Roth T J. Diffraction-limited-beam, high-power operation from X-junction coupled phase-locked arrays of AlGaAs/GaAs diode lasers. Applied Physics Letters, 1988, 53(15): 1366–1368

[15] Hermansson B, Yevick D. Analysis of Y-junction and coupled laser arrays. Applied Optics, 1989, 28(1): 66–73

[16] Botez D, Mawst L J, Peterson G, Roth T J. Resonant optical transmission and coupling in phase-locked diode laser arrays of antiguides: the resonant optical waveguide array. Applied Physics Letters, 1989, 54(22): 2183–2185

[17] Zmudzinski C, Botez D, Mawst L J, Tu C, Frantz L. Coherent 1 W continuous wave operation of large-aperture resonant arrays of antiguided diode lasers. Applied Physics Letters, 1993, 62(23): 2914–2916

[18] Chang-Hasnain C, Welch D F, Scifres D R, Whinnery J R, Dienes A, Burnham R D. Diffraction-limited emission from a diode laser array in an apertured graded-index lens external cavity. Applied Physics Letters, 1986, 49(11): 614–616

[19] Henderson G A, Begley D L. Injection-locked semiconductor laser array using a graded-index rod: a computational model. Applied Optics, 1989, 28(21): 4548–4551

[20] Waarts R, Mehuys D, Nam D, Welch D, Streifer W, Scifres D. High-power, CW, diffraction-limited, GaAlAs laser diode array in an external Talbot cavity. Applied Physics Letters, 1991, 58(23): 2586–2588

[21] Mehuys D, Streifer W, Waarts R G, Welch D F. Modal analysis of linear Talbot-cavity semiconductor lasers. Optics Letters, 1991, 16(11): 823–825

[22] Liu B, Liu Y, Braiman Y. Coherent beam combining of high power broad-area laser diode array with a closed-V-shape external Talbot cavity. Optics Express, 2010, 18(7): 7361–7368

[23] Corcoran C J, Pasch K A. Modal analysis of a self-Fourier laser. Journal of Optics. A, Pure and Applied Optics, 2005, 7(5): L1–L7

[24] Corcoran C J, Durville F. Experimental demonstration of a phase-locked laser array using a self-Fourier cavity. Applied Physics Letters, 2005, 86(20): 201118

[25] Goldberg L, Weller J F, Mehuys D, Welch D F, Scifres D R. 12 W broad area semiconductor amplifier with diffraction-limited optical output. Electronics Letters, 1991, 27(11): 927–929

[26] Walpole J N, Kintzer E S, Chinn S R, Wang C A, Missaggia L J. High-power strained-layer InGaAs/AlGaAs tapered traveling wave amplifier. Applied Physics Letters, 1992, 61(7): 740–742

[27] Shay T M, Benham V, Baker J T, Sanchez A D, Pilkington D, Lu C A, 0. Self-synchronous and self-referenced coherent beam combination for large optical arrays. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2007, 13(3): 480–486

[28] Cheung E C, Ho J G, Goodno G D, Rice R R, Rothenberg J, Thielen P, Weber M, Wickham M. Diffractive-optics-based beam combination of a phase-locked fiber laser array. Optics Letters, 2008, 33(4): 354–356

[29] Goodno G D, McNaught S J, Rothenberg J E, McComb T S, Thielen P A, Wickham M G, Weber M E. Active phase and polarization locking of a 1.4 kW fiber amplifier. Optics Letters, 2010, 35(10): 1542–1544

[30] Uberna R, Bratcher A, Alley T G, Sanchez A D, Flores A S, Pulford B. Coherent combination of high power fiber amplifiers in a two-dimensional re-imaging waveguide. Optics Express, 2010, 18(13): 13547–13553

[31] Wickham M. Coherent beam combining of fiber amplifiers and solid-state lasers including the use of diffractive optical elements. In: Proceedings of Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, OSA. 2010, paper CThG2

[32] Augst S J, Montoya J, Creedon K, Kansky J, Fan T Y, Sanchez-Rubio A. Intracavity coherent beam combining of 21 semiconductor gain elements using SPGD. In: Proceedings of CLEO: Lasers and Electro-Optics. 2012, paper CTu1D.1

[33] Huang R K, Chan B, Missaggia L J, Augst S J, Connors M K, Turner G W, Sanchez-Rubio A, Donnelly J P, Hostetler J L, Miester C, Dorsch F. Coherently combined diode laser arrays and stacks/ In: Proceedings of CLEO: Quantum Electronics and Laser Science. 2009, paper CWF1

[34] Sarangan A M, Wright M W, Marciante J R, Bossert D J. Spectral properties of angled-grating high-power semiconductor lasers. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 1999, 35(8): 1220–1230

[35] Glova A F. Phase locking of optically coupled lasers. Quantum Electronics, 2003, 33(4): 283–306

[36] Wu T W, Chang W Z, Galvanauskas A, Winful H G. Model for passive coherent beam combining in fiber laser arrays. Optics Express, 2009, 17(22): 19509–19518

[37] Chang W Z, Wu T W, Winful H G, Galvanauskas A. Array size scalability of passively coherently phased fiber laser arrays. Optics Express, 2010, 18(9): 9634–9642

[38] Chen K L, Wang S. Single-lobe symmetric coupled laser arrays. Electronics Letters, 1985, 21(8): 347–349

[39] Chen K, Wang S. Analysis of symmetric Y junction laser arrays with uniform near field distribution. Electronics Letters, 1986, 22(12): 644–645

[40] Bachmann F, Loosen P, Poprawe R, eds. High Power Diode Lasers. In:Ultrashort Pulse Laser Technology. Berlin: Springer, 2006

[41] Nabors C D. Effects of phase errors on coherent emitter arrays. Applied Optics, 1994, 33(12): 2284–2289

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding support from Army Research Office (ARO). The authors also acknowledge the use of the Gatech Nanotechnology Research Center Facility in the completion of this work.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg