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n=1
e
i(
n
t+
n
)
(2.1)
Normally the phases are independent of each other and for large N an intensity is expected,
which uctuates to some, possibly large, extent around an average value of N times the intensity
of one mode.
I(t) = |E(t)|
2
= E
2
0
n=1
e
i(
n
t+
n
)
2
= NE
2
0
(2.2)
The uctuation around this value has a repeating character induced by the modes circulating
through the cavity, producing the same output every round trip. For small N, beat patterns may
occur due to interference of the few modes.
10
CHAPTER 2. THEORY
Now consider a xed linear relationship between the phases of the laser modes. All oscillating
modes then are phase-locked to each other, and the process is termed mode locking. For this to
happen, an intra-cavity loss or gain modulator operating synchronously with the cavity round trip
frequency,
sep
, is required. The modulation generates side bands which give rise to an energy
transport between neighbouring modes. With it, phase information is transferred and after several
round trips, all modes agree on a common phase.
Inserting the linear phase relationship, e.g. as a constant phase oset from mode to mode,
=
n+1
n
, into Eq. (2.1), the combined eld amplitude can be rewritten as
E(t) = E
0
e
i(
N
t+
N
)
1 e
iN(t+)
1 e
it+
(2.3)
and the intensity becomes
I(t) = E
2
0
1 e
iN(t+)
1 e
it+
2
= E
2
0
sin
2
(N (t + ) /2)
sin
2
((t + ) /2)
(2.4)
where =
n+1
n
and =
n+1
n
.
0
Time
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y
50 modes
5 modes
cw
resonator round trip time
Figure 2.1: Locked modes (upper), showing periodic maxima when the phases of all modes
match (lower).
From Eq. (2.1) and Eq. (2.4) and by taking, e.g.,
n
=
0
and = 0, Fig. 2.1 can be constructed.
The upper part shows the real part of the complex eld of ve laser modes as function of time
(green). The lower part shows the intensity as function of time for two dierent numbers of modes,
5 (magenta) and 50 (blue), and the normalized intensity in case the laser is operated in a single
mode with continuous wave (cw) output (red). The ves modes show an equal phase once per
round trip (t
sep
= 1/
sep
), whereas at all other times the modes interfere destructively. Also,
once per round trip, a pulse with large intensity occurs, containing the same amount of energy
as the continuous output per round trip, but concentrated in a small time window. More modes
have a shorter time of coincidence, which results in narrower peaks with larger peak intensities. By
11
CHAPTER 2. THEORY
inspecting Eq. (2.4), one obtains that the maximum intensity is increased by a factor of N over the
average intensity.
I(t)
max
= N
2
E
2
0
(2.5)
The shortest pulse duration at full width half maximum (FWHM) that can be generated is
related to the optical cavity length, nd, and the number of oscillating modes, N, as follows
t
p,min
=
2nd
Nc
=
2
N
=
1
sep
N
1
gain bandwidth
(2.6)
and is ideally as short as the reciprocal of the gain bandwidth. Experimentally generated pulses
that fulll this condition, i.e. pulses with a duration of the inverse gain bandwidth, are referred to
as bandwidth-limited pulses. For example, in case of pulses with a Gaussian temporal shape, the
minimum pulse duration is t
p,min
= 0.441/N. The value 0.441 is known as the time-bandwidth
product and depends on the pulse shape. The minimum attainable time-bandwidth product of a
secant hyperbolic squared pulse shape is 0.315 and 0.11 for a single sided exponential shape [15].
The actual pulse shape can be estimated by tting an experimental autocorrelation trace to a
theoretical one assuming a certain pulse shape.
Mode locking techniques
A number of mode locking techniques is available, which roughly can be divided into three groups.
Active mode locking
In active mode locking, the gain or loss of the laser is modulated. An external high frequency,
usually a radio frequency (RF) signal is applied to modulate either the laser gain or loss
directly or to drive an intra-cavity active device. Modulating the gain or loss must be done
exactly synchronized to the pulse round trip time through the cavity, t
sep
= 2nd/c. This
modulation causes sidebands to develop, with which phase information is transferred. As
this relates the phases of all modes, pulses are formed as described in the current section.
This technique enables ultrashort pulses in the picosecond regime to develop, with high phase
stability between successive pulses.
Passive mode locking
Mode locking can be obtained with a passive medium like a saturable absorber or a Kerr lens
inside the cavity. These intensity-dependent shutters are transmitting light if the intensity
is high, such that they require no external control (thus the form passive) because they are
controlled by the arrival time of the pulse itself. Mode locking is initiated by peaks in the
at rst randomly uctuating intensity inside the laser cavity. Since the higher intensities are
transmitted, the peaks, consisting of modes with equal phase, grow and eventually lead to
a single high-intensity peak traveling through the cavity by ltering out all other (wrongly
phased) mode superpositions. The nonlinear eect of saturable absorbers enables ultrashort
pulses in the femtosecond regime, providing that the gain prole is suciently large.
Hybrid mode locking
Hybrid mode locking is a combination of active and passive mode locking, where both an RF
signal and a passive medium are used to produce ultrashort pulses. It takes advantage of
active mode-locked stability and the saturable absorbers pulse shortening mechanisms.
12
CHAPTER 2. THEORY
2.2.2 Active mode locking in diode lasers
In active mode locking, modulation the loss or gain of a diode laser at a frequency equal to the
intermodal spacing,
sep
, results in optical sidebands to emerge. Each of these modes is being
driven by the modulation sidebands of its neighbours [16], and consequently, the phases of the
modes are locked to each other.
The intermodal spacing of diode lasers (typically 50 to over 100 GHz) is at the upper end of
existing RF technology due to the very small dimensions of the laser medium, which makes direct
modulation technically complicated. To decrease the spacing between the modes, lengthening the
cavity is an easy possibility, so mode locking can be performed at a much lower standard radio
frequency. Lengthening the cavity can be achieved by an external cavity, created by removing one
mirror from the diode laser via an antireection (AR) coating and replacing it by an external one
at some suitable distance.
M DL
M L DL DG L DL
F DL FBG DL
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
M FP L DL
Figure 2.2: External-cavity congurations of mode-locked diode lasers. DL diode laser, M
mirror, L lens, FP Fabry-Perot etalon, DG diraction grating, F ber, FBG Fiber
Bragg grating
Several commonly used external-cavity congurations are schematically illustrated in Fig. 2.2.
The rst experimentally mode-locked diode lasers used a simple cavity, where a curved mirror
reects the light back into the diode. Such a setup is drawn in (a). It has the disadvantage that
the that mirror curvature has to be chosen according to the applied frequency or vice versa. A
solution to this limitation can be realized using a collimating lens and a plane mirror (b) or a ber
(c). For additional selection of operation wavelength or for bandwidth reduction, implementing a
Fabry-Perot etalon (d), a diraction grating (e) or a ber Bragg grating (f) are commonly used
options.
13
CHAPTER 2. THEORY
Spectral properties
To reduce the required modulation frequency from 50100 GHz to lower values, the diode laser has
to be placed in an external cavity conguration. However, this causes additional complications.
A nite residual reectivity of the front facet, which always remains after antireection coating,
usually results in the formation of a three-mirror cavity. Such a composite cavity consists of the
two diode laser facets and the external reector. Then, also the reectivity of the front diode facet
determines the resultant spectrum of laser emission.
The composite Fabry-Perot resonator eect implies a non-trivial optical output spectrum, which
is a convolution of two Fabry-Perot cavity spectra. An example of such a spectrum of two combined
cavities is given in Fig. 2.3, where the intensity of the modes is plotted as function of the optical
frequency. The external mirror with the diode rear facet usually form a high-Finesse cavity with
Frequency
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y
d
c
Figure 2.3: Typical output spectrum of a mode-locked diode laser with an imperfect antire-
ection coating on the front diode facet. The clusters of external cavity modes are separated
by the intermodal spacing of the diode laser.
larger mirror spacing, i.e. the resulting spectrum consists of rather sharp modes with a small
spacing,
c
. This spectrum is convoluted with the spectrum generated by the two laser diode
facets. As one of the facets is AR coated, the facets from a short, low-Finesse cavity, which
results in a spectrum of broad modes with a large spacing,
d
. The resulting spectrum exhibits a
clustered structure of the modes with the clusters spaced by
d
. Although the modes within such
a cluster are locked, separate clusters are not locked to each other, since they rise from statistically
independent noise sources of spontaneous emission. Generated pulses with such a spectrum have a
temporal substructure and are far from bandwidth limited.
Former studies have shown that a high quality AR coating with a residual facet reectivity
of less than 10
4
[17] is required to prevent mode cluster formation. Otherwise, a weak feedback
in combination with the high single pass gain is sucient to drastically reduce the lockable gain
bandwidth to less than the intermodal spacing of the diode cavity [16]. In that case, the modes of
only one of the clusters in Fig. 2.3 should be locked. If the pump power is high enough for modes of
more than one cluster to reach threshold, only the modes within a cluster are locked. Such emission
consisting of several clusters cannot produce bandwidth-limited pulses. A solution is to restrict the
very broad optical spectrum to a single mode cluster by a Fabry-Perot etalon, diraction grating
or a ber Bragg grating, as shown in Fig. 2.2 (d), (e) and (f).
14
CHAPTER 2. THEORY
Reducing the spectral bandwidth is one option to avoid the eects of the residual reectivity of
the front facet. Another solution is to use an angled-stripe semiconductor laser [18], in which the
gain channel is not exactly perpendicular with respect to the facets. This prevents the formation
of the second resonator between the diode facets. A third solution to the issue is to lock more than
one mode cluster, which can be realized by hybridly mode locking the laser by placing a saturable
absorber in the cavity. A broader spectrum and thus shorter pulses can be achieved.
Pulse quality
The time-bandwidth product, t
p
, is often used to indicate the quality of optical pulses. Band-
width or Fourier-limited pulses are theoretically the shortest pulses that can be obtained from a
given amplitude spectrum. From the mode locking theory follows that a linear phase spectrum
results in the shortest pulse. This minimized pulse duration yields the smallest possible time-
bandwidth product. For this number to give an indication of the pulse quality, the pulse shape
must be known. In the case of a sinusoidal gain modulation, Gaussian pulse shapes have been ob-
served in actively mode-locked solid state lasers. In diode lasers however, the strong carrier photon
interactions [13] and the carrier lifetimes in the order of the modulation period, causes signicant
dierent gain modulation proles, resulting in secant hyperbolic squared [13, 19] of single sided
exponential [15] temporal pulse shapes. In the case of mode-locked diode lasers with an imperfect
AR coating, which show optical spectra like in Fig. 2.3, the random phases of the mode clusters
lead to excessive values for the time-bandwidth product. Reducing the lasing spectrum to a single
mode cluster by inserting a Fabry-Perot etalon in the cavity or by replacing the external mirror by
a diraction grating can result in nearly bandwidth-limited pulses, with t
p
in the range of 0.3
to 0.6 [13, 15].
The time-bandwidth product often is reduced due to a wavelength chirp, which is frequently
observed in experimental work on actively mode-locked diode lasers [20]. Such a wavelength chirp
can be caused by refractive index changes. The carrier density (concentration of electrons and
holes) determines the refractive index of the diode and during the optical pulse emission the carrier
density is aected. The instantaneous frequency over the produced mode-locked pulse typically
decreases (red chirp) [20]. Hence the time-bandwidth product is far from limited. Because the
change of refractive index with carrier density generates a relatively linear chirp [20], the chirp is
found to be linear near the peak of the pulse [21]. Towards the wings of the optical pulse, the
refractive index change due to the electron temperature becomes more dominant, which results in
a nonlinear chirp [20]. According to [21], the amount of chirp and its linearity depends on the
wavelength and the spectral bandwidth.
To counteract the wavelength chirp, dispersion compensating optical components can be placed
into the external cavity like, e.g., a chirped mirror [22]. Linearly chirped pulses can be eectively
compressed using well-known optical pulse compression techniques, like a grating, prism pair or
such chirped mirrors.
2.3 Pulse amplication
High power pulses in the near-infrared (NIR) region, 13 m, are interesting for many applica-
tions, such as spectroscopy, laser and amplier pumping and frequency conversion. Diode-pumped
ytterbium-doped ber ampliers oer a large gain-bandwidth, high eciency and high reliability.
Such optical ampliers are perfectly suitable to reach high powers in the 1-1.1 m region utilizing
low power seed sources [23, 24]. Pumping an OPO with pulses in he wavelength region 1-1.1 m
can give access to the mid-IR region [4, 5, 25], which is interesting for, e.g., spectroscopy purposes.
15
CHAPTER 2. THEORY
Ytterbium-doped (Yb-doped) silica has very broad absorption and emission spectra. Both
absorption and emission as function of wavelength are shown in the right-hand side of Fig. 2.4.
Both spectra show a narrow peak at 975 nm. The left-hand side of Fig. 2.4 shows the energy levels
0
4000
8000
12000
E
(
c
m
1
)
g
f
e
d
c
b
a
2
F
5/2
2
F
7/2
Figure 2.4: Energy levels (left) and absorption and emission spectra [26] (right) of ytterbium-
doped silica.
of Yb-doped silica. The main absorption and emission peak at 975 nm corresponds to an energy
transition between the lowest levels of both manifolds in the energy level structure. Absorption
below this wavelength mainly results from transitions from level a to f and g, whereas transitions
from level e to b, c and d are responsible for the emission at higher wavelengths [27].
When amplication of a particular wavelength is required, a pumping range of 8001064 nm
is available. However, gain is generated only at wavelengths longer than the pump wavelength, so
amplication of pulses in the 1-1.1 m region requires the pump wavelength to be below 1 m.
High output powers can be obtained from so-called double-clad bers. A single mode Yb-doped
core is surrounded by a larger multi-mode undoped inner cladding. The pump light is sent into
the multi-mode inner cladding and due to the overlap these modes have with the doped inner core,
pump light can be absorbed there. A drawback of cladding pumping is that three-level transitions
cause signicant reabsorption of signal in weakly pumped regions and hardly any amplication is
achieved. However, for wavelengths above 1040 nm, four-level transitions dominate and ecient
cladding pumping is possible [28].
The lower pump absorption per unit length, by cladding pumping in stead of core pumping,
can be overcome by a longer ber length or a larger absorption cross-section. Because of its large
absorption cross-section, the sharp absorption line at 975 nm is an ideal pump wavelength for
cladding pumped Yb-doped ber ampliers.
16
Chapter 3
Measurement
Overview In Chapter 2 mode locking as a method of pulse generation was introduced. The
present chapter will discuss how these ultrashort pulses can be measured using the autocorrelation
technique (section 3.1). A general theoretical description is given and certain practical issues are
discussed. Finally, the design of an autocorrelator is worked out and the details on the actual
experimental setup used in this work are given. The theoretical approach of autocorrelation used
in the following sections is mainly based on [29]. In addition to the measurement of the temporal
properties, Chapter 3 also deals with the measurement of spectral properties of diode lasers. In
section 3.2, two ways of doing this are presented, namely the optical spectrum analyzer and the
Fabry-Perot interferometer.
3.1 Ultrashort pulse measurement
Short light pulses of durations down to about one picosecond, can today be measured by optoelec-
tronic methods. However, to visualize the signal from a photodiode with a response time of a few
hundred femtoseconds, an oscilloscope with a response time of the same order is required. Another
possibility is to use a streak camera, a high precision device that not only gives the pulse width,
but also details of the temporal prole.
The main drawback of these methods is that they require very expensive equipment. Because
of that, other techniques are considered to measure ultrashort events. One such method is opti-
cal autocorrelation, a widely used diagnostic technique to determine whether a laser is actually
producing short pulses.
3.1.1 Intensity autocorrelation
In order to measure the temporal prole of an ultrashort event, an even shorter reference event of
known shape is required. Let I
s
(t) be the unknown ultrashort pulse and I
r
(t) be a reference pulse.
With the delay parameter , the intensity cross-correlation is dened as
A
c
() =
I
s
(t)I
r
(t )dt (3.1)
The measured signal, A
c
(), diers from zero only if the pulse to be measured and its reference
pulse overlap temporally. The reference pulse represents a measurement window which is shifted
17
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
across I
s
(t) in order to scan the temporal prole. With the idealistic assumption of I
r
(t) being a
delta-function, A
c
() is identical to I
s
(t). However, all phase information of the analyzed pulse is
lost in this intensity cross-correlation through conjugate multiplication.
The prerequisite of a reference signal shorter than the optical pulse to be analyzed is often not
available. Even if it is, the shape of this signal must be determined. A very short signal in the form
of the optical pulse itself however, is available at all time. Although the pulse of course is not shorter
than itself, one should consider to use it as the reference signal. In this case I
r
(t) = I
s
(t) = I(t)
and Eq. (3.1) becomes the intensity autocorrelation.
A() =
E(t)E
|E(t) + E(t )|
2
dt
=
, namely that
, so:
= 2
(3.5)
In this case the incoming light at the fundamental frequency,
|E(t) + E(t )|
2
2
dt (3.6)
Decomposition of this equation after substituting the complex elds by the real amplitude, ,
and phase dependence, , via E(t) = (t) exp
i(t)
, shows that the second order autocorrelation
has four components.
G
2
() =
constant
. .. .
I
2
(t) + I
2
(t )
dt +
intensity autocorrelation
. .. .
4
I(t)I(t )dt
+ Re
I
2
+ I
2
(t )
(t)(t )e
i
e
i((t)(t))
dt + c.c.
+ Re
2
(t)
2
(t )e
2i
e
i((t)(t))
dt + c.c.
. .. .
interferogram of second harmonic
(3.7)
These four components of the interferometric autocorrelation of an arbitrary pulse as a function
0
0
2
4
6
8
Delay
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
(
a
.
u
.
)
0
4
2
0
2
4
Delay
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
(
a
.
u
.
)
Figure 3.1: (left) The interferometric autocorrelation (blue) and its intensity autocorrelation
(gray). (right) The four components of the interferometric autocorrelation: the constant back-
ground (blue), the intensity autocorrelation (cyan), the eld autocorrelation (green) and the
second harmonic autocorrelation (magenta).
of the delay are graphically represented on the right-hand side of Fig. 3.1 as function of the delay,
19
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
in addition to the combined trace on the left. The four components are centered around three
oscillation frequencies, namely: zero, and 2. The rst two components of the expansion are
at zero frequency and together these are referred to as the intensity autocorrelation (cyan) with
background (blue). At = 0, a maximum value of 6
4
dt is reached, whereas at = a
constant background value of 2
4
dt is found. The peak-to-background ratio of this intensity
autocorrelation is thus 3 to 1 (gray line in the left gure). The other two terms represent the
oscillating components, of which the former is the eld autocorrelation (green), oscillating at ,
and the latter the second harmonic autocorrelation (magenta), at 2, with maxima of 8
4
dt and
2
4
dt respectively.
Constructive interference of all components together results in a maximum value of 16
4
dt
at = 0. Taking into account the constant background level of 2
4
dt explains the peak to
background ratio of 8 to 1 for the interferometric autocorrelation (blue). The sum-frequency signal
as a function of relative time delay is proportional to the shape of the pulse. As any autocorrelation,
the interferometric autocorrelation is also symmetrical.
Unlike the intensity autocorrelation the interferometric autocorrelation does contain some phase
information. The ability to quantitatively measure a linear chirp is the main advantage of this,
which is demonstrated below.
Linear chirp
Unchirped Gaussian pulses show correlation traces like in Fig. 3.1. The lower and upper envelopes
split evenly from the constant background level, indicating the coherence time of the pulse is as
long as the pulse itself.
Next, consider a chirped Gaussian pulse, (t) =
0
exp
(1 + ia)(t/
G
)
2
. Depending on the
amount of chirp, dened by the chirp parameter a, the interference pattern is smaller and wings
appear at both sides. These wings exactly correspond to the shape of the intensity autocorrelation
and the width of the interference pattern points out the shorter coherence time. The level at which
the interference pattern starts in relation to the peak level indicates to what extent the pulse is
chirped.
The interferometric autocorrelation of a linearly chirped Gaussian pulse is expressed as
G
2
() = 1 + 2 exp
+ 4 exp
a
2
+ 3
4
cos
a
2
2
cos
+exp
(1 + a
2
)
cos 2
(3.8)
and is shown in Fig. 3.2. Equation 3.8 shows the same constant background and the same intensity
autocorrelation component as the unchirped Gaussian pulse (gray line). A dierence is noticed for
the other two terms, which include the chirp factor a. This term causes the interference pattern
to narrow (magenta line) and the intensity autocorrelation to partially appear. The right-hand
side of Fig. 3.2 shows the envelopes of the autocorrelation for three values of the chirp factor. It
demonstrates that a larger chirp factor causes a larger narrowing the interference pattern.
As was demonstrated in this section, interferometric autocorrelation is capable of revealing
more information about the pulse than the intensity autocorrelation technique. For a practical
application, usually this type is preferred.
20
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
0
0
2
4
6
8
Delay
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
(
a
.
u
.
)
0
0
2
4
6
8
Delay
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
(
a
.
u
.
)
a=0
a=2
a=8
Figure 3.2: Interferometric (magenta) en corresponding intensity autocorrelation (gray) of
a chirped Gaussian pulse (left) and upper and lower envelopes for three values of the chirp
parameter a (right).
Types of autocorrelators
Practical measurement of picosecond or femtosecond pulses requires one variable arm of the Michel-
son interferometer. The most common method to produce an optical path dierence is mounting
a mirror on a linear motion device like an audio loudspeaker or a motorized translation stage and
driving that with a sinusoidal signal. A second method utilizes a material with a signicantly larger
refractive index than air, which is rotated to induce a delay. Another method relies on a rotating
platform containing one or more optical components to produce a varying path length [31].
Pulses longer than a few picoseconds require large scan ranges. For example, for a delay of
100 ps, a path length dierence of 3 cm has to be scanned. The scan range is limited by the type
of autocorrelator. Up to 300 ps of delay can be obtained by a rotating-mirror autocorrelator, while
larger scan ranges can be reached with a motorized linear translator, although the size of such a
device can be considerable.
Because of the large scan range required to measure the expected picosecond pulses from our
diode laser and the exibility to adapt to dierent pulse lengths, we decided to build a rotating-
mirror autocorrelator, which is explained below.
3.1.3 Rotating-mirror autocorrelator
The rotating-mirror autocorrelator consists of a Michelson interferometer where the variable arm
employs two antiparallel mirrors mounted on a rotating platform symmetrically to its rotation axis.
The setup is schematically illustrated in Fig. 3.3.
Splitting the incoming pulses by means of a beam splitter is the rst step in the autocorrelator.
One beam is transmitted to mirror M4 and the other is reected to the rotating platform. The two
mirrors on the platform, M1 and M2, steer the beam to a third xed mirror, M3, from which it is
retroreected back to the beam splitter, again via the two rotating mirrors. The returned pulses
are combined with the ones returning from M4 and focussed into a SHG crystal where the second
harmonic signal is generated. The power of the SHG signal depends on the extent of overlap. After
21
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
PMT
M
M
BS SHG
crystal
delay
L L
h
d
r
p
4
p
3
p
1
p
2
C
1
htan( + ) + r [sin() cos() tan( + )]
htan( + ) + r
3 4 cos
2
( + )
(3.9)
y
p
() =
h
h
h 4r sin() sin( + )
h 4r sin() sin( + )
(3.10)
in which represents the mirror angle with respect to the line, of length 2r, through the centers
of both mirrors [32]. h is assigned to the incoming beam height, that is the vertical distance in the
view of Fig. 3.3 from the center of the beam splitter to the origin of rotation. The locations of the
beam splitter and of M3 determine the constants C
1
and C
2
, but they do not aect the path length
dierence L. Making use of these coordinates, the path length, L(), can be easily derived.
L() =
[x
p
1
() x
p
0
()]
2
+ [y
1
() y
0
()]
2
+
[x
p
2
() x
p
1
()]
2
+ [y
2
() y
1
()]
2
+
[x
p
3
() x
p
2
()]
2
+ [y
3
() y
2
()]
2
(3.11)
From [32] the optimum mirror angle and and separation can be taken to maximize the path
length dierence, L. It appears that L is maximum for a mirror separation of little more than
22
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
twice the mirror width. For any mirror angle and separation, the optimum incoming beam height,
h
opt
, can be calculated to maximize L [32]:
h
opt
=
2r sin()
(d/2)
2
+ dr cos() + r
2
d
2
+ r cos()
(3.12)
Usually, the angular velocity of the rotating platform is constant, leading to the drawback of
a non-uniform rate of delay. The smaller the mirror separation, the higher the nonlinearity. In
[31], the nonlinearity NL over the whole scan is estimated to be NL d/8r, leading to a change
of delay rate of 25% for d = 2r. In contrast to pulses in the fs regime, for pulses in the ps
regime this nonlinearity cannot be neglected if a highly accurate autocorrelation trace is required.
Compensation is possible using an interferogram of a cw laser.
Experimental realization
For the characterization of the ultrashort pulses generated in de course of this work, we constructed
home-made rotating mirror autocorrelator. Pulse durations of several tens of picoseconds, i.e. a
spatial length of about 2 cm, are to be measured, so a path length dierence of a least a threefold
of that is required. The mirrors on the rotating platform have a diameter of d = 6.3 cm and are
separated by 2r = 7 cm. The angle at which the mirrors are mounted on the rotating platform is
= 55
. These values allow a path length dierence corresponding to about 200 ps to be traced.
The SHG crystal used is a rather long BBO crystal with dimensions of 5x5x12 mm, cut under an
angle of 22.8
, for type I second harmonic generation of 1064 nm to 532 nm. Instead of a fundamen-
tal lter and a photomultiplier tube, a PerkinElmer channel photomultiplier (CPM) module (type
MD983) is used. Its spectral sensitivity is in the range 185650 nm, so the fundamental wavelength
of around 1060 nm remains undetected, making the fundamental lter abundant. This module is a
newly developed detector, as an enhancement of a conventional photomultiplier tube. It oers an
extremely low dark current and a very high anode sensitivity, both one order of magnitude better
as compared to conventional PMTs. The CPM uses a unique detection principle by converting a
very low light level into electrons via a semitransparent photocathode. On their way to the anode,
the electrons move through a narrow, curved semiconductive channel, hit the inner wall and emit
secondary electrons upon every bounce. This process repeats itself several times along the path
resulting an avalanche eect with a very high gain.
For calibration of the autocorrelator, an event of a known temporal duration is required as
calculation of the path dierence gives only an estimation of the practical scan range. In this work,
the pulses generated within the semiconductor chip itself have been used for that purpose. Their
temporal separation can be veried from spectral measurements. This will be explained in detail
in section 4.3.3.
Evaluation of the recorded traces
From the recorded traces by the autocorrelator, the pulse durations have to be estimated. The
traces are recorded by an oscilloscope (Tektronix TDS2022) and stored in data les. These data
les contain the time axis of the oscilloscope and the measured output of the CPM in Volts. We have
written a MATLAB program to analyze the data les. It generates a plot of the autocorrelation
trace, ts the data by a chosen function (see section 2.2.2) and calculates the pulse duration based
on that t. Once the scan setup and trace calibration parameters are entered, our program can
calculate the delay time and the normalized signal levels directly from the data le. A plot of the
23
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
autocorrelation trace is generated as well as a plot of a t for a Gaussian or secant hyperbolic
squared function.
From the autocorrelation traces recorded with this autocorrelator, no clear pulse prole can be
determined by comparing it to ts with Gaussian or sech
2
shaped pulse. A Gaussian pulse shape
assumption results in longer pulse durations than with a secant hyperbolic squared assumption.
To avoid overestimation of the shortness of the pulses, all traces in this thesis are tted assuming
a Gaussian pulse shape, even though the actual pulse shape may be closer to the sech
2
function.
The pulse duration for a sech
2
function, calculated using the same tting procedure, is mentioned
several times for comparison.
3.2 Spectral measurements
Apart from an estimation of the phase and temporal pulse properties, information about the op-
tical spectrum is desired for a better characterization of the laser. For coarse, but quantitative
measurements, an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) is used, whereas ner details are revealed by a
scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer.
3.2.1 Optical spectrum analyzer
Quantitative measurements of the optical spectrum are performed using two optical spectrum
analyzers
1
. The spectral bandwidth of these grating-based devices covers the wavelength range
from 600 nm to 1750 nm. The incorporated detectors have a huge dynamic range, which enables
the measurement of light powers from 20 dBm (100 mW) down to -90 dBm with 0.3 dB accuracy.
The rst of the two (Ando AQ6317) has a wavelength resolution of 0.015 nm with an accuracy of
0.05 nm. The second (Ando AQ6315A) diers from the rst by its resolution of 0.05 nm and its
spectral range, which is enhanced by 250 nm into the UV.
Even though the resolution is not sucient to resolve the single longitudinal modes of a laser
resonator of several centimeters in length, it is sucient for the large intermodal spacing of the
diode laser itself, which in this case is of particular importance. To be able to make fully use of the
high resolution, the light is coupled into the spectrum analyzer using a single mode ber. These
outstanding features allow high resolution and sensitivity measurements of the optical spectrum.
3.2.2 Scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer
In order to resolve the longitudinal modes of the external cavity that we set up, we use a scanning
Fabry-Perot interferometer. Such an instrument usually consists of two partially transmitting mir-
rors, in between which light waves bounce back and forth [33]. This multiple-beam interferometer is
illuminated along the axis, such that incident light can interfere with itself within the Fabry-Perot
cavity. To get a signal, the interferometer cavity has to be lled with light. This can only be the
case if there is positive interference of the waves that oscillate between the mirrors. Standing waves
are formed as a result of the optical distance between the mirrors, nd, being an integer multiple of
half a wavelength. With m being the order of interference, this can be expressed as
nd = m/2, (3.13)
which shows that the separation between the mirrors determines the transmitted wavelength. By
smoothly varying the position of one of the mirrors along the optical axis, this characteristic feature
1
Which OSA was actually used for an experiment was based on the availability at that specic day.
24
CHAPTER 3. MEASUREMENT
can be exploited to continuously tune the interferometer. Usually, the mirror separation is scanned
over several wavelengths by a piezoelectric transducer, leading to a repetitive (because of the
dierent orders of constructive interference) output pattern. The frequency dierence between
adjacent peaks of two successive interference orders of the same incident wavelength is termed the
free spectral range (FSR). For a plane mirror Fabry-Perot interferometer, i.e. one that uses two
at mirrors aligned exactly parallel, the FSR is given by FSR = c/2nd. It denes the frequency
bandwidth over which a measurement is possible without overlapping dierent interference orders,
which is normally in the order of some 100 MHz to several GHz. Meaningful measurements can
only be obtained if the FSR is greater than the spectral bandwidth of the input beam. On the
other hand the highest resolution measurement requires the FSR to be as small as possible.
Another type of Fabry-Perot interferometer uses two concave mirrors with radii of curvature
equal to their separation. This type is called a confocal mirror Fabry-Perot interferometer. The
FSR of these is directly related to the mirror curvature by FSR = c/4nd. In this case the FSR
diers from that of a plane mirror Fabry-Perot interferometer, since the incident light falls back
upon itself only after four traversals in stead of two, which means that the transmitted spectrum
is reproduced after changing the mirror distance a quarter of a wavelength.
A common measure to quantify the performance of the Fabry-Perot interferometer is the ratio
of the distance between two adjacent maxima to the width of the maximum (FWHM), which is
called the nesse of the cavity, F. The nesse is highly inuenced by the reectance, R, of the
mirrors. As the distance between two maxima corresponds to a wavelength dierence of , or to a
frequency dierence of 2, the nesse can be calculated as follows:
F =
R
1 R
(3.14)
Higher nesse values enable higher resolution measurements, but reduce the transmission of the
incident light as a consequence, so choosing an appropriate mirror reection is eminent.
Experimental realization
Two confocal mirrors with a radius of curvature of 25 mm in a confocal setup form the cavity of the
scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer we use. It has a free spectral range of 3 GHz, corresponding to
a wavelength range little more than 0.01 nm at a wavelengths of about 1 m. One of the mirrors is
mounted on a piezoelectric activator, allowing it to be shifted several micrometers. A high-voltage
supply, fed by a signal generator, drives this mirror in a triangular way back and forth, varying the
cavity length to scan the frequency range of 3 GHz. With a mirror reectance of 98%, the nesse
can be calculated to be around 150, leading to a minimum resolvable bandwidth of approximately
20 MHz. In practice however, the minimum resolvable bandwidth reduces to about 100 MHz, but
is still very suitable to distinguish laser modes of about 1 GHz apart.
25
Chapter 4
Experimental results
Overview This chapter describes the experimental setup, the process of mode locking a diode
laser and the measurement results. At rst the experimental setup is explained in detail. A com-
mercially available single stripe diode laser rst is characterized in continuous operation, after which
it is actively mode-locked, which should lead to pulses with picosecond duration. Optical properties
and pulse durations are examined.
4.1 Experimental setup
4.1.1 Diode laser setup
Active mode locking of a diode laser by modulating the input current at RF frequencies requires
a longer cavity than that of the semiconductor chip itself. Therefore the diode laser has to be
positioned in an external cavity conguration. The diverging output beam is collimated using a
lens, CL (Thorlabs C220 TM-B, f = 11 mm AR coated for wavlengths 6001050 nm). Figure 4.1
shows the diode laser placed in an external cavity, where feedback is provided by a diraction
grating in Littrow conguration. Such an external Littrow cavity provides a coarse selection of the
operation wavelength by adjusting the angle of the feedback grating.
For our experiments, presented in the following section, two diode lasers of identical structure
and similar specications have been compared and tested for their suitability for generating mode-
locked pulses. The two GaInAs diode lasers are SAL1060-60 AR coated single stripe diode lasers
from Sacher Lasertechnik, SN281 and SN286. The front facet of these diode lasers is anti-reection
coated, necessary to facilitate mode locking in diode lasers, as was discussed in section 2.2.2. With
residual reectivities specied to be R = 4 10
5
for the SN281 and R = 2 10
6
for the SN286,
both seem to fulll the minimum requirement of R = 1 10
4
[3], demanded because of the large
single pass gain of diode lasers.
The output of the external cavity laser is sent through an optical Faraday isolator (Linos FI1040-
TI), to prevent undesirable optical feedback into the diode laser. Around the Faraday isolator, two
plano-convex cylindrical lenses, ZL
1
(f = 100 mm, AR810) and ZL
2
(f = 50 mm, AR1064) form a
telescope to shape the beam and reduce the beam diameter. This beam shaping is required such
that it can be more easily analyzed or, later, focussed into the ber amplier core. The lens in
front of the Faraday isolator is tilted slightly to avoid reections back into the diode.
Research on the optical properties of the output is performed by three measurement devices, the
rotating mirror autocorrelator, an optical spectrum analyzer and the Fabry-Perot interferometer.
26
CHAPTER 4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Optical
spectrum
analyzer
Bias-T
DG
M
HR AR
RF
DC
M
BS
BS
ZL
1
M
Scanning
Fabry-Perot
interferometer
Autocorrelator
ZL
2
FI
CL DL
Figure 4.1: Experimental setup for mode locking a diode laser and characterizing its output.
DC DC current source, RF RF current source, DL diode laser, HR Highly reective,
AR Antireection coated, CL Collimating lens, DG diraction grating, M mirror,
ZL Cylindrical lens, FI Faraday isolator, BS Beam splitter.
All these are described in Chapter 3. A noteworthy, unique feature of our setup is that all three
optical instruments can be monitored simultaneously, so realigning can be kept minimal.
4.1.2 RF electronics
As mentioned before, active mode locking a diode laser by modulating the gain requires an RF
modulation signal to be superimposed onto a DC bias current. A device capable of doing that
is a so called bias-T, from which the combined signal has to be coupled into the diode laser. To
ensure an excellent coupling and to avoid reections back into the RF source, the circuit has to be
impedance matched to the RF source at the desired frequency. A home-made circuit has been used
for both purposes. The circuit to supply the combined current to the diode laser contains a bias-T
and a part to take care of the impedance matching the diode laser to the input RF frequency. This
circuit is drawn in Fig. 4.2. The DC bias current is supplied by an ILX Lightwave LDC-37248
laser diode controller. Temperature stabilization of the diode laser by means of a peltier element
integrated in the housing, is also achieved using this controller. The RF signal is provided by a
synthesized sweep generator (Anritsu 69147A, 0.0120 GHz, max. 20 dBm). To avoid possible
27
CHAPTER 4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
reections to reach the generator, a Philips 2272 162 03951 circulator (1.72.3 GHz, -20 dB), acting
as an isolator due to a 50 termination on the third port, is used. The RF signal is amplied by
a Trontech P1020-33 amplier (12 GHz, 33 dB) to reach high modulation powers.
DC
RF GND C
1
C
b
C
a
LD
L
Bias-T Impedance match
Figure 4.2: Bias-T circuit including an impedance matching addition to ensure high coupling.
DC DC current source, RF RF current source, C Capacity, L Inductor, LD Laser
diode.
Impedance is dened as the total opposition to current ow in an alternating current circuit.
It diers from simple resistance in that it takes into account a possible phase oset between the
current and the voltage, i.e. it can change value with frequency. Usually, the impedance is expressed
in complex notation, Z = R+jX, where j is the imaginary unit, R the ohmic resistance and X the
reactance. In case of a sinusoidal signal of angular frequency , inductors have an impedance of
jL and capacitors 1/jC, thus the higher the frequency, the larger the inductive and the smaller
the capacitive impedance.
Maximum power transfer in high-frequency circuits happens when the impedances of dierent
devices are matched. In this case the impedance of the diode laser has to be matched to the
impedance of the RF source. Apart from the maximum power transfer, unwanted reections are
another important reason to match the impedances. High power reections back into the RF source
may cause damage to that apparatus, as well as low power reections may distort the input signal.
Two adjustable capacitors are used for this, C
a
and C
b
in Fig. 4.2. The rst, C
a
, is to compensate
the induction originated from the parallel inductor and capacity, L and C
1
respectively. This
way, the impedance is matched to that of the input signal. The second adjustable capacity, C
b
,
compensates for the induction in the supply channels to the diode. Summarized, the two adjustable
capacitors are required to let the circuit accept the chosen input frequency.
Superimposing the RF signal on top of a DC current is accomplished by means of a bias-T,
integrated in the circuit of Fig. 4.2. Via this bias-T, the DC and RF sources are connected to
the laser diode by separate paths. That for the DC signal is equipped with an inductor, L, which
transmits low frequency signals, but is of high impedance for high frequency signals. The RF
source on the other hand, is connected through a capacitor, C
1
, which acts just the opposite, low
frequencies undergo a high impedance whereas high frequencies can transmit easily. This way, the
signals from each source are prevented from entering the other source, which otherwise can load
each other in stead of the diode and possible leads to the damaging of one of the sources.
To correctly adjust the two capacities C
a
and C
b
, we use setup in Fig. 4.3. The circuit is
frequency swept by a very low RF power of 30 dBm, transmitted through a directional coupler.
Backward reections in the transmission line at all frequencies in the sweep are partially separated,
through a known coupling loss. The source of the frequency sweep is integrated in the RF spec-
28
CHAPTER 4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Directional coupler
RF source
RF spectrum analyzer
Bias-T DC
DL
reflections RF
0.5 1 1.5 2
90
80
70
60
50
Frequency (GHz)
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
e
d
p
o
w
e
r
(
d
B
m
)
Figure 4.3: (left) Setup for impedance matching the diode laser to an RF frequency. DC
DC current source, DL Diode laser. (right) Reected power with a steep dip at the impedance
match frequency.
trum analyzer (Agilent E4407B), which also measures the reected power. The result of such a
measurement is presented in the right-hand side of the gure. It shows the power reections on
a logarithmic scale over a frequency range of 500 MHz2 GHz. At 1.4 GHz a steep dip of more
than 25 dB below the surrounding powers is observed. At this frequency, minimal reections occur,
indicating that the impedances of the source and the diode are matched. By adjusting the two
capacitors, a steep dip in the RF spectrum can be positioned exactly at the desired frequency any-
where between 1 and 1.5 GHz for this particular diode (SN286). Once the impedances are matched,
a large RF power may be applied at that specic frequency without the danger of damaging the
source.
4.2 Continuous wave diode laser characteristics
For preliminary characterization, the properties of the diode lasers are rst investigated in continu-
ous wave (cw) operation, i.e. no RF power is supplied to the diode. The power-current characteristic
and the output spectrum are of particular importance. From the power-current curve, the thresh-
old value can be deduced, whereas the tunability and mode distance can be determined from the
spectrum.
First of all the laser is activated without any other optical components besides the collimating
lens. The temperature of the diode is stabilized at 19
t
o
A
S
E
r
a
t
i
o
(
)
Figure 5.7: The maximum average optical power and the signal-to-ASE power ratio of the
amplied pulses. The limited output powers below 1044 nm are caused by the self-pulsing of
the ber amplier. The signal-to-ASE power ratio has a similar curve.
48
Chapter 6
Summary
In this thesis, we characterize the output performance of GaInAs diode lasers emitting ultrashort
pulses with subsequent amplication in an ytterbium-doped ber to peak powers of more than
100 W. Such sources, particulary when tunable, are of high importance for ecient nonlinear
frequency conversion, e.g., to the mid-infrared using synchronously pumped optical parametric
oscillators (OPOs).
To obtain ultrashort pulses, the diode lasers have been actively mode-locked by modulation of
the injection current. The antireection coated diode lasers have been placed in an external grating
feedback cavity with its length adjusted to match the modulation frequency, and mode-locked pulses
at a repetition rate of 1.4 GHz have been generated.
The pulse duration measured behind the diode laser is 35 ps, as determined by interferometric
autocorrelation, assuming a Gaussian pulse shape. The spectral selection of the emitted light
by properly adjusting the grating, results in the emission of nearly Fourier-limited pulses (time-
bandwidth product of about 1.4). The remaining deviation from the theoretical value of 0.441 can
be accredited to a chirp in the pulse and a residual modulation of the output spectrum, which
indicates a temporal substructure. The average output power of the mode-locked laser is 15 mW,
which corresponds to maximum peak powers of 200 mW at a 1.4 GHz repetition rate.
A second advantage of grating feedback is that the diode output can be tuned over a wide range
(10401085 nm), while output power and pulse duration remain approximately unchanged.
For power amplication of the mode-locked pulses from the diode laser, we use a cladding
pumped double-clad ytterbium-doped ber of 36 m length. After amplication, the average output
power is more than 9 W. With slightly shorter pulse durations than in the unamplied case, this
corresponds to peak powers of more than 100 W.
By grating tuning of the diode laser, the ber output is tunable from 1050 to 1085 nm with
average output powers of more than 9 W. Spectral measurements show that the ASE background
is suppressed to up to 40 dB below the power at the signal wavelength. Based upon our previous
experience, these output parameters provide ideal conditions to synchronously pump mid-IR OPOs.
This means, in particular, an ultra-wide tuning of the OPO output wavelength across the molecular
ngerprint region, by grating tuning our high-power diode-ber source. We note that no other
experiments so far have shown such high-power pulses in combination with such large wavelength
tunability around 1 m.
49
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