IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO LASERS

Abstract: An array (10) of tapered semiconductor lasers having a straight region (14) and a tapered region (16) is provided. The lasers (12) are ridge loaded structures which are formed on a single chip. The lasers (12) operate in the near infrared and are suitable for materials processing.

Description: IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO LASERS This invention relates to lasers There are many applications for which high power semiconductor lasers are suitable particularly where operation is required in the near infra-red. These include materials processing and micromachining A requirement in these applications is that the output of the laser can be tocussed to a small spot so that a material may be sufficiently healed to cause a chemical change, ablation or burning Other applications include range finding and as pumps tor fibre lasers. In these applications optical bnghtness is a key parameter and should be as high as possible. The optical brightness, which determines the size of the spot to which the emitted light can be focussed. is given by the power per unit area per unit solid angle. There is a limit to the bnghtness of light which can be emitted by a semiconductor laser. This is due to the optical power handling capacity of the surface or facet from which the light is emitted If the opϋcal power density in this region is too high this can lead to degradation of the laser. Theretore, at the maximum optical power density, the bnghtness can only be increased by reducing the divergence of the beam from the laser A number of methods have been proposed for increasing the bnghtness of semiconductor lasers These include fabπcating a waveguide comprising a tapered laser (K.A Williams et al "Q-switched bow-tie lasers for high energy picosecond pulse generation", Electronic Letters, volume 30. no 4, pp320-321. 1994), tapered lasei amplifiers (D Mehuys "5.25-W CW near diffraction limned tapered stripe semiconductor optical amplifier", IEEE Photonic Technical Letters volume 5, no. 10, pp l 179- 1 182, 1993) and anti-guide laser arrays (D. Botez. "High power monolithic phase-locked arrays of anti-guide semiconductor diode lasers", IEE Proceedings, volume 139, ppl4-23, 1992) A disadvantage ot tapered laser waveguides and tapered laser amplifiers is that they have a limited power range over which they will maintain a narrow lateral divergence At powers above this limited range, optical and carrier induced index changes disrupt the waveguide and cause filamentation ot emitted light hich leads to an increase in the beam divergence. Although anti-guide lasers have been proposed as a solution to this problem, they are difficult to make due to the very tight tolerances required tor the waveguide widths Furthermore, a substantial fraction of the output power is emitted in side lobes, which decreases the bnghtness of these devices According to the invention is provided an incoherent array ot tapered semiconductor lasers Preferably the tapered laser array compnses a plurality of waveguides Each waveguide may comprise an ldual tapered laser Preferably each waveguide will support only one transverse optical mode Alternatively two or more optical modes may be supported PretcrabK each waveguide has a narrow region and a tapered region which tapers out to a wide output region Preferably the array is formed by depositing layers on a single substrate Preierablv the array is formed on a single laser chip. Waveguides on the chip may be formed by an etching step of one or more layers All of the tapered lasers may be formed together Limiting the number of modes which will be generated in each waveguide increases the brightness, reduces internal losses and increases internal efficiency of the device. Preferably the lasers are ridge loaded structures Alternatively they may be buried structures Limiting the number of modes may be achieved by having a small refractive index step Limiting the number ot modes may also be achieved by having a narrow width at one end of the waveguides This may cut off higher order modes. In one embodiment the narrow region of the waveguides may have a width of less than lOμm, preferably it is 5μm or less and most preferably it is between 3 and 5μm. The refractive index step may be less than 0.3 Preferably it is 0 2 or less, most preferably it is between 0.005 and 0.015 Other combinations ot width and refractive index step may also provide suitable mode selection The narrow end may be referred to as the input end because it is at the other end of the waveguides to the output end. Preferably each waveguide tapers out to a wide output end. The term wide is relative and means that it is wider than the narrow region The width of each waveguide at the output end may be chosen such that the optical intensity is not sufficient to cause damage to a facet at the output end Preferably the taper spreads out to a width of between 5 and l OOμm Most preferably the width is approximately 30μm The width must be small compared to the taper length so that the resulting taper angle is low enough to prevent coupling to higher order modes Each waveguide may compπse a straight section and a tapered section. The sides of the tapered section may be straight or may be shaped in some other manner They may follow a parabolic shape A parabolic shaped taper has the advantage oi giving lower transverse mode coupling than a taper with straight sides. For a parabolic shape, the sides of the taper may diverge most at a region near the straight section and then diverge less and less along the taper away from the straight section The sides ot the taper be substantially parallel at the output end The width of the beam emitted by the array is dependent on the number ot waveguides Therefore the array may be scaled-up by increasing the number of waveguides whilst still maintaining a low divergence output The waveguides may be between 500 and 2000μm long Preferably they are between 700 and 1200μm long Most preferably they are approximately lOOOμm long. In one embodiment the straight section of each waveguide is between 100 and 300μm long and the tapered section is between 600 and 900μm long The length can be set to optimise the external quantum efficiency of the waveguides while maintaining taper angles shallow enough for single mode operation Preferably the waveguides are defined in an active layer by a conductive structure of an appropnate shape, tor example tapered An angle defined by the edge of the waveguide and the longitudinal axis of the waveguide is refened to as the taper angle. Preferably the taper angle is less than 2°. Preferably each waveguide has a reflection coating applied at each end Preferably a high reflectivity coating is present at the input end Preferably the reflectivity is more than 95% Most preferably it is approximately 98%. Preferably a low reflectivity coating is present at the output end Preferably the reflectivity is less than 3% Most preferably it is between 0 5 and 1 % Preferably the w aveguides are closely spaced such as to provide a relatively uniform bnghtness across the width of the output end of the array. Preferably the space between adjacent waveguides at the output end is less than 500μm, more preferably less than 200μm Most preferably it is between 5μm and l OOμm. In vanous preferred embodiments it may be approximately 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90μm Preferably the lasers operate in the range 0 8-2.5μm Most preferably they operate in the range 0 8- 1 μm However by choosing the conect mateπal system such as GaN then they may operate as low as 0 4μm By using an array of tapered lasers, light may be emitted having both a nanow lateral beam divergence and high output power Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way ot example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 shows an array of tapered laser waveguides, Figure 2 is an end elevation of the output end ot the array of Figure 1 , Figure 3 shows a perspective view of the output end of the array, Figure 4 shows a layer structure of the array, Figure 5 shows a graph showing lateral far-field of the array, Figure 6 shows a graph showing the power-current characteristic of the array, and Figure 7 shows another embodiment of an array ot tapered laser waveguides Figure 1 shows an incoherent array 10 of tapered lasers Each upered laser in the array 10 comprises a conductive structure 12 which defines a waveguide in active material underlying the conductive structure 12 Seven waveguides adjacent to one another are thus defined The waveguides have a narrow straight region 14 leading to a tapered region 16 In this embodiment the tapered regions 16 have straight sides The tapered regions 16 tapei out to an output end 18 at an output face 20 of the array 10 The other end of the array is referred to as the input end 22 This is simply for convenience and does not accurately describe its function A simple waveguide propagation model (2D BPM) which gives a good representation of the laser optical mode properties is used to determine the dimensions and refractive index step of the waveguides such that most of the power remains in the lowest order transverse mode Having most ot the power in the lowest order mode reduces the possibility of damaging hot spots occurring at the output end 18 The narrow region 14 is about 3μm wide and 200μm long The upered region is about 800μm long and tapers from 3μm to about 30μm in width. The array 10 is about lOOOμm in length. The spacing between adjacent waveguides at the output end 18 is about 15μm. Accordingly the distance from a centre line of a particular waveguide to the centre line of an adjacent waveguide is about 45μm The length of the waveguide is a compromise which is determined by balancing the gain of active mateπal which compπses the tapered laser and loss caused by absorption in the active material Therefore the length of the waveguide will be, to some extent, determined by the nature of the active materials used and the tvpe ol laser. The effective refractive index step between the waveguide and its surrounding medium is between 0.005 and 0 015 The taper angle is sufficiently small such that in combination with the refractive index step and the waveguide width (or particularly the change in the waveguide width), most or all of the power stays in the fundamenul transverse mode In this embodiment the taper angle is less than 2° The input and output faces 22. 20 are formed by cleaving and each have applied reflective coatings At the input end 22 of the array 10 a high reflectivity (HR) coating is applied. At the output end 1 an anti- reflectivity (AR) coating is applied These coatings enhance the output power of the lasers In particular the AR coating prevents backwards travelling light (that is light travelling in a direction from the output end 1 to the input end 22) in the laser from building up to a power which will damage the input end 22 In the preferred embodiment described here the reflectivity of the facet at the input end 22 of the pei is 98% and ihe reflectivity of the facet at the output end 1 of the taper is between 0.5 and 1 %. As each waveguide tapers outwardly towards the output end 18. the optical intensity at this end is not large enough to cause damage to the output face 20 Although this embodiment has a width of 30μm. an output width of between 5 and l OOμm may be used. This will result in a change in lateral divergence of the light emitted by the output end 18 Figure 2 shows the array in broad detail The structure of the array and its fabrication will be discussed in more detail below The array 10 compπses a substrate 30 which may be GaAs. InP or another III- V semiconductor matenal system However, the invention could be applicable to any system in which optical waveguides can be defined. On top of the substrate 30 an active region 32 is grown by MOVPE which compπses the laser cavities of the waveguides The active region 32 has multiple semiconductor layers which arc barπer layers (for example GaAlAs) and layers forming the quantum wells (such as InGaAs) and is a graded index separate confinement heterostructure. It is described in more detail with reference to Figure 4 A πdge structure 1 2 is etched at the top surface (or cladding) of the semiconductor layers by dry etching The ridge structure 12 defines the waveguides in the active region 32 Etching can be earned out by using ion beam techniques although any other suitable method may be used The array is coated with a dielectric insulating layer which is etched away in the w aveguide legions and is coated, in turn, by a conductive layer f-igure 3 shows a perspective view of the end of the arrav showing the ridge waveguide geometry Referπng now to Figure 4 the active region 32 consists ot two InGaAs quantum wells with graded index AIGaAs cladding layers Heterostructure embodiments may be fabncated with different proportions of Al in their cladding layers Example proportions are 25% and 35% The embodiment containing 25% Al provides a more weakly guiding waveguide and hence produces a larger mode-size and a narrower vertical divergence than the embodiment conuining 35% Al This also results in a reduced facet power density and therefore an increased catastrophic optical damage (COD) threshold The vertical mode profile is spread out further by the use of balanced, graded outer AIGaAs layers The lateral confinement is imposed by the ridge structure 12 as has been described previously In the figure the layers are denoted AIGaAs as (40), graded AIGaAs as (42). GaAs as (44) and InGaAs quantum wells as (46) In operation vertical confinement is provided by the heterostructure and lateral confinement is provided by the refractive index difference between the waveguides which is induced by πdge loading In another embodiment the array 10 may be a buπed structure in which case lateral confinement is provided by a refractive index difference due to difference in materials In essence the waveguides operate with the naπow regions (laser regions) 14 pumping the fundamental mode ot the tapered regions (amplifier regions) 16 The feedback required to establish round-trip gain in the device is very small. In order to limit the power density in the narrow regions 14 the AR and HR coatings are used For efficient thermal management, the array 10 in the form of a chip is mounted p-side down onto a diamond heatsink. The parameters of the waveguides, such as their dimensions, taper angle and refractive index step are chosen such that the waveguides support only one transverse laser mode. This causes individual tapered lasers in the array 10 to emit light beams which are single moded. This provides a more uniform output and reduces the possibility of "hotspots" occurring across the output face 20 which can cause damage. However, in practice more than one mode may be generated perhaps due to fabrication processes or operation of the array. The parameters (particularly those of width and refractive index step) may be varied for other arrays, for example arrays comprising other materials or arrays which have different structures in order to maintain light being emitted as single mode (or two or three modes). The modes of the individual waveguides are uncoupled. The spacing between the waveguides is determined by the following factors: i) it must be as close as possible so that the desired brightness is achieved from the array: ii) the waveguides must be sufficiently far apart to prevent optical coupling between adjacent waveguides which could produce a multi-lobed far-field and also cause damage to the output face; and iii) the waveguides must be sufficiently far apart to enable efficient heat extraction from the array in order to prevent it from overheating. Referring now to Figure 5. the far-field angular distribution of the upcrs is typically 2" (F HM) for CW output powers of up to 2W. The embodiment having 35% Al in its cladding layers has a vertical far-field of 36° FWHM. The embodiment having 25% Al in its cladding layers has a vertical far- field of 26° FWHM The threshold current densities of the tapered laser arrays for the 25% Al and 35% Al embodiments are 350 Ac and 520 Acm 2 respectively The external quantum efficiencies vary from around 0.9 W/A for the higher Al embodiment to 0.75 W/A for the lower Al embodiment when operated to 3W (pulsed) output power. Figure 6 shows characteristics of CW output powers against current for the 35% Al embodiment Output powers of 8W have been achieved The maximum CW power attainable before the onset of thermal roll-over could be increased further by reducing the device thermal impedance Pulsed output powers of over 15W have been demonstrated in these arrays without observauon of COD at drive currents of up to 21A and pulse widths of 3μs (at 0 3% duty cycle) This corresponds to an output facet intensity of over 70mW per μm facet The results of Figures 5 and 6 were obtained from a laser array operating at 0 98μm This array has InGaAs quantum wells However a laser array having GaN quantum wells may operate as low as 0 4μm The spacing between adjacent waveguides could range from 5μm to over l OOμm depending on the brightness and dπving power requirements of the laser and the retractive index step of the waveguide Figure 7 shows an alternative embodiment of an array 10 in which the tapers of the waveguides have tapered regions 16 each having a parabolic shape. The advantage of this shape is that is produces lower transverse mode coupling than a taper with straight sides The aπay is highly suitable for producing a spacially wide output "beam" (compnsing a number of individual beams). It suffers less from problems of hotspots and filamentation since each tapered laser supports a limited number of modes, or even a single mode Therefore it produces a semiconductor laser which is especially suitable tor pumping of other lasers and to be used in materials processing.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. An incoherent array ( 10) of tapered semiconductor lasers. 2 An array (10) according to claim 1 which compπses a plurahty of waveguides (12) 3 An array ( 10) according to claim 2 in which the waveguides ( 12) are spaced sufficiently closely so as to provide a relatively uniform brightness across the width of an output end (20) of the array ( 10) 4 An array (10) according to claim 2 or claim 3 in which spacing between adjacent waveguides ( 12) at the output end (20) is between 5μm and lOOμm 5 An array ( 10) according to any of claims 2 to 4 in which each waveguide (12) compπses an individual tapered laser 6 An array ( 10) according to any of claims 2 to 5 in which each waveguide ( 12) supports only one transverse optical mode 7 An array ( 10) according to any of claims 2 to 6 in which the waveguides ( 12) are πdge ioaded structures 8 An array according to any of claims 2 to 7 in which the refractive index step between each waveguide and medium surrounding is between 0.005 and 0.015. An array (10) according to any of claims 2 to 8 in which the waveguides (12) are between 800 and 1200μm long. An array according to any of claims 2 to 9 in which a narrow region of each waveguide is between 100 and 300μm long and a tapered region (16) is between 600 and 900μm long An array according to claim 10 in which the narrow region of the waveguides has a width of less than lOμm An array (10) according to claim 10 or claim 1 1 in which the tapered regιon(16) tapers out to an output region which is approximately 30μm. An array ( 10) according to any preceding claim in which the lasers operate in the range 900- lOOOnm. An array (10) according to any preceding claim which is formed on a single laser chip.

Inventors: FARRIES MARK CUNNINGHAM, LEWANDOWSKI JAN JOZEF, ROBBINS DAVID JAMES, WILLIAMS PETER JOHN, FARRIES, MARK, CUNNINGHAM, LEWANDOWSKI, JAN, JOZEF, ROBBINS, DAVID, JAMES, WILLIAMS, PETER, JOHN
Applicants: FARRIES MARK CUNNINGHAM, LEWANDOWSKI JAN JOZEF, MARCONI GEC LTD, ROBBINS DAVID JAMES, WILLIAMS PETER JOHN, FARRIES, MARK, CUNNINGHAM, GEC-MARCONI LIMITED, LEWANDOWSKI, JAN, JOZEF, ROBBINS, DAVID, JAMES, WILLIAMS, PETER, JOHN
Application year: 1997
Main classification: H01S3
IPC codes: H01S5