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Frontiers of Optoelectronics

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Front. Optoelectron.    2016, Vol. 9 Issue (2) : 290-300    https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-016-0610-7
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Integrated coherent combining of angled-grating broad-area lasers
Yunsong ZHAO1,2,*(),Yeyu ZHU1,2,Lin ZHU1,2
1. Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Clemson University, Clemson SC 29634, USA
2. Center for Optical Material Science and Engineering Technologies, Clemson University, Clemson SC 29634, USA
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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     
Corresponding Author(s): Yunsong ZHAO   
Just Accepted Date: 25 February 2016   Online First Date: 29 March 2016    Issue Date: 05 April 2016
 Cite this article:   
Yunsong ZHAO,Yeyu ZHU,Lin ZHU. Integrated coherent combining of angled-grating broad-area lasers[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 2016, 9(2): 290-300.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-016-0610-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y2016/V9/I2/290
Fig.1  Schematic of a coherently combined angled-grating laser. (a) Planar geometry of the combined angled-grating laser. Two coherently combined emitters (the output from two legs in the coupled structure) constructively interfere in the far field; (b) cross-section structure of a single emitter; (c) L and W are the length and width of a single emitter, respectively. θ is the tilt angle of the grating
Fig.2  Wave coupling and cavity modes in the single emitter and coupled emitter. (a) A single angled-grating emitter. R1 and R2 are two planewave-like components resonate with the grating. The phase matching condition between k-vectors is shown in the inset; (b) FDTD simulation result of a single angled-grating resonator. The solid arrows represent the R1 component and the dashed arrows represent the R2 component; (c) an on-chip combined angled-grating laser. Arrows in blue represent wave components in the left grating, while arrows in red represent wave components in the right grating. The inset shows the coupling between different wavevectors through the grating; (d) FDTD simulation result of a combined angled-grating resonator
Fig.3  Planar geometry of a zigzag coherently combined laser array. Coupling regions are marked by red triangles. Coherently combined outputs (marked in red circles) constructively interfere in the far field
Fig.4  Topographic structures of different passive beam combining systems. Adjacent laser beams are connected by 2X2 coupler. (a) Proposed zigzag-like structure. Each laser beam is directly coupled with adjacent neighbors. The system has N/2 output ports; (b) tree-like structure. The system has only one output port
Fig.5  Normalized I G vs. θ d / λ . The solid line shows the ideal case. The dash line shows the fully correlated case. The dot-dash line shows the adjacent correlated case. In the simulation, σ φ is set to be π / 5 [ 41]
Fig.6  (a) Brightness with respect to the standard variation of phase noise σ φ . N is set to be 30 in the calculation; (b) brightness with respect to the number of emitters N . σ φ is set to be π / 8 in the calculation. The solid line shows the ideal case. The dash line shows the fully correlated case and the dot-dash line shows the adjacent correlated case
description material thickness/nm doping x y
substrate InP n/a n = 2 e 18 n/a n/a
buffer InP 1000 n > 1 e 18 n/a n/a
waveguide InGaAsP 130 n = 1 e 17 0.1449 0.3167
waveguide InGaAsP 40 undoped 0.1449 0.3167
waveguide InGaAsP 50 undoped 0.2467 0.5353
QW×4 InGaAsP 8.5 undoped 0.4402 0.9425
barrier×3 InGaAsP 10 undoped 0.2467 0.5353
waveguide InGaAsP 50 undoped 0.2467 0.5353
waveguide InGaAsP 40 undoped 0.2144 0.4663
waveguide InGaAsP 120 p = 1 e 17 0.2144 0.4663
cladding InP 1000 p = 1 e 17 - 2 e 18 n/a n/a
contact layer In0.53Ga0.47As 20 p > 1 e 19 n/a n/a
Tab.1   I n 1 - x G a x A s y P 1 - y / I n P epitaxy wafer design
Fig.7  SEM pictures of (a) etched gratings, (b) coupling region, (c) packaged two combined laser and (d) packaged six combined laser mini bar
Fig.8  (a) L-I curves of the p-side-down bonded single angled-grating broad-area laser (in solid blue line) and two coherently combined lasers (in red line). The dashed line is the twice of the single emitter output power at doubled pump current to be compared to the combined output; (b) spectra at two different pump currents; (c) near field of the coupled laser. The inset is the camera image; (d) far field profiles: the blue solid line is the measured far field of the coupled laser, the green dashed line is the calculated far field and the red dash-dot line represents the measured far field of a single angled-grating broad-area laser. We obtain a good agreement between the measured and calculated far field. The inset is the camera image
Fig.9  (a) Light power vs. current curve of the mini laser bar; (b) light spectrum of three apertures at 2000 mA; the inset is the zoom-in view between 1524.5 nm and 1526.0 nm; (c) measurement setup used to take the optical spectrum of individual aperture
Fig.10  Near field and far field profiles of the three coherent output apertures of a mini-bar at 2000 mA. (a) Near field profile; (b) measured far field profile (blue solid line); calculated far field profile (red dashed line); far field profile of a single angled-grating broad-area laser (green dash-dotted line)
Fig.11  Near field and far field profiles of the four coherent output apertures of a mini-bar at 2000 mA. (a) Near field profile; (b) measured far field profile
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