PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 3, 2014
Proc. SPIE. 8966, Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VECSELs) IV
KEYWORDS: Semiconductors, Near infrared, Laser sources, Mirrors, Quantum wells, Polarization, Laser applications, Semiconductor lasers, Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, Prototyping
Demanding applications such as LIDAR, velocimetry, gas analysis or atomic clock rely on a highly coherent laser. Offering high coherence at high power and flexible wavelength, the GaAs- and Sb-based VECSEL technologies seem to be a well suited path to fulfill the required specifications of demanding applications. Till now, technical and physical knowledge of high power high coherence single frequency compact diode-pumped VECSELs have been developed at IES [1], with low intensity and frequency noise, but this promising technology is still at laboratory stage. The expertise built up in this field allows considering the realization of user-friendly marketable products, with performances that do not exist on the market today at 1 μm and 2.3 μm. Our goal is to develop a single frequency diode-pumped VECSEL, intracavity element free, achieving the desired performances, and to integrate this component into a compact module. The VECSEL prototypes developed in the frame of this work exhibit exciting features compared to diode-pumped solidstate lasers; they combine high power high coherence in a single TEM00 mode emission, free running narrow linewidth with high SMSR, a linear polarization, broadband continuous tunability, and compact design without any movable intracavity elements. All these specifications can be reached thanks to the high finesse cavity of VECSEL technology, associated to ideal homogeneous laser QW gain behavior.
