Semiconductor Lasers

Applications

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Outline

• History of lasers
• How does a laser work
• Gain, feedback and waveguide of a semiconductor laser

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LASER History

Theodore Maiman
Hughes Research Laboratories, 1960

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100% reflecting mirror

95% reflecting mirror What Maiman had built:

He applied high voltage electricity to flash lamp to
radiate intense light burst to excite some of Ruby atoms
to higher energy levels.
Then, due to stimulated emission and travel of photons
back and forth, an emission was observed.

Power supply

Flash lamp

Ruby crystal Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission Radiation

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fast decay

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pump and laser transition wavelength in Ruby laser

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Three phases of Lasers

Solid State laser Gas laser Liquid laser

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Applications

• Optical communications

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Applications

• Medical applications (retina surgery, bloodless blades, removing tumors, …)

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Applications

• Industrial applications (laser cutting, welding, …)

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Applications

• Military applications (target designation and ranging, directed energy weapons, … )

R. Maram 11
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Applications

• Commercial applications (barcode readers, laser scanners, holography, …)

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Applications

• Scientific researches (spectroscopy, nuclear fusion, …)

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Applications

• Entertainment (lighting displays, digital cinema projectors, tags, …)

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We are mainly interested in solid state ‘Semiconductor lasers’ because:

• Small size and integration capability with CMOS technology

• Economically beneficial for mass production
• Low-power and high-efficiency
• Wide wavelength range (very important)

smaller “pits” (shorter wavelength)

store more information

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