Series in Quantum Electronics
edited by
Henry Baltes, Peter Günter, Ursula Keller,
Fritz K. Kneubühl †, Walter Lukosz,
Hans Melchior, Markus W. Sigrist
Vol. 45
Andreas Stefan
Rutz
GaInNAs SESAMs and VECSELs
at 1.3 and 1.5 μm wavelength.
1st
edition 2008. 164 pages; €
64,00.
ISBN 3-86628-203-6 and 978-3-86628-203-2
Modelocked solid-state lasers and vertical-external-cavity surface emitting lasers
in the wavelength region of 1.3 to 1.5 µm are an interesting topic for several
applications from telecommunication to frequency-doubled sources for video
projection systems. GaInNAs is a promising candidate
as an active and passive semiconductor material in this wavelength range. An
understanding of the material properties, as well as a stable growth process
forms the foundation for a commercial application of such dilute nitride
semiconductors in future. This thesis discusses the properties and fabrication
of GaInNAs material with different perspective. In a
first step, GaInNAs-based semiconductor
saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) for modelocking of solid-state lasers at 1.5 µm wavelength are
developed. On the basis of these devices, we developed SESAMs for an Er:Yb:glass laser (ERGO) operating
at 1534 nm. The final structure showed a modulation depth of 0.39% and a
saturation fluence of 20 µJ/cm2
in an antiresonant structure, which is an
exceptionally low value for quantum well devices. Due to the large number of
growth-defects introduced during nitrogen incorporation, a bleaching recovery
time of 18 ps was attained. Using this SESAM,
pulses of 5 ps duration at a repetition rate of
61 MHz were obtained from the laser. As a second step, a GaInNAs-based vertical external-cavity laser (VECSEL) was
developed. The growth temperature, V/III BEP ratio, plasma cell operating
conditions as well as the thermal annealing parameters were optimized. Using
such optimized material, we fabricated a GaInNAs
VECSEL, generating 600 mW continuous wave output. Modelocked operation was
also demonstrated at a repetition rate of 6 GHz and a
pulse duration of 18.7 ps using a GaInNAs SESAM specifically developed for this VECSEL. As
the processes limiting the radiative efficiency in GaInNAs
are still largely unknown, photoinduced current
transient spectroscopy (PICTS) was used for the characterization of deep-level
defects in SESAMs and active structures. The results indicate that the method
works well in the presented setup, allowing for measurements of single quantum
wells with high resolution.
About the author:
Andreas Rutz received his diploma in materials
science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where he
joined the Institute of Quantum Electronics in April 2004. His research focused
on the development of GaInNAs-based passive and
active components for mode-locked lasers at 1.3 und 1.5 µm wavelength
using molecular beam epitaxy.
Keywords: GaInNAs, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), passive modelocking, VECSELs, Growth process development, optically
pumped semiconductor lasers, dilute nitrides
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