310

Lasers level on the other side to funnel into. The drop across semiconductor B berng
equal to Vg ensurgs that the electron can tunnel from level I ofsemiconductorA

on the left-hand side of B to level 2 of the next semiconductor A on the rig[1hand side of B, and then the whole thing starts again. The electron descends, emits a photon, tunnels across, descends, emits a photon, and so on until it finds the last semiconductor A. If there are 50 layers of semiconductor A, then a single electron will produce 50 photons. From the point of view of the electron, this is like a cascaded ornamental waterfall. By the end the electron will have lost all its energy. From the point ofview ofthe photon, this is an exercise in gathering strength. The energy difference between levels I and 2 depends on the thickness of semiconductor A. Hence, the laser wavelength can be changed by choosing the appropriate material thickness. The wavelength range Quanlum Cascade lasers can cover is large, ftom about 3 to 17 pm. The pnnctples upon rvhich Quantum Cascade lasers work rvere enunciated recently entered the market place. Why? in the 1970s but they have only "'ery

You can appreciate the reasons; it is the extreme accuracv required. Each layer must have a certain number of atoms, not an atom more not an atom
less.

As you can see, semiconductor lasers of all kinds have made and are making great leaps fonvard. They are poised to acquire the same dominance in lasers as other semiconductor devices enjoy in generating and arnplifying lower fiequency signals and in the freld of sr.r'itching.

12.8

Laser modes and control techniques

Having discussed the principies of operation of a larse number of lasers. let us see now in a little more detail horv the electric fieid varies inside a laser resonator and describe a ferv rnethods of controiling the Inode purity and the duration of laser oscillations.

12.8.1 Transversemodes
What

will be the amplitude distribution of the electromagnetic wave in the laser resonator? Will it be more or less uniform, or will it vary violently over the cross-section? These questions were answered in a classical paper by Kogelnik and Li in 1966, shorving both theoreticaliy and experimentally the possible modes in a laser resonator. The experiments \L'ere performed in a He Ne laser, producing the mode patterns of Fig. I 2.20. For n.rost applications we would like a nice, clean beam as shown in the upper left-hand comer. How can rve eliminate the others? By introducing losses for the higher order modes. This may be done, for example. by reducing the size of the reflector. Since the higher order modes have higher difiraction losses (they radiate out more), this rvill distinguish them in favour of the fundamental mode. Horvevet, this will influence laser operation in the fundamental mode as rvell. thus a more effective method is to place an iris diaphragm into the resonator, which lets through the fundarnental mode but 'intercepts' the higher order
modes.