LASER

LASER is an acronym
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
A laser is actually an oscillator
In the early days of lasers, they were often called optical masers
MASER=Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Oscillator = amplifier with positive feedback and enough gain to

cancel loss
In lasers, feedback is accomplished by reflection at mirrors or gratings
that enclose an amplifying medium

LASER
Lasers are a kind of light that is different than light from the sun,
or from a light bulb.
Each of the letters in laser actually stands for a word.
Light
Amplification
by the
Stimulated
Emission
of
Radiation

L
L stands for Light.
The amazing thing about lasers is that they harness the power
of light and control it.
Laser light has several special qualities:

it comes in one color

it comes in a thin beam
it can be made very intense or not intense at all, and
it can be focused to a tiny spot.

These characteristics are very different from the light

originating from a light-bulb. The Light-bulb light:

has many colors mixed together

doesn't come in a narrow beam
cannot be focused to as small a spot
and cannot be as intense as a laser without expending tremendous
amounts of energy.

So lasers are special because they allow us to control light in

new and important ways.

A
The A in laser stands for amplification.
Amplification means that a very bright intense beam of light can
be created.
The laser may be activated by a few photons, but then many,
many more are generated.
The initial light is amplified to make a very bright compact
beam.

S
The S in laser stands for stimulated.
Stimulated means that the photons are amplified by stimulating
an atom to release more photons.
An atom can exist in an excited state, similar to a bow when it is
stretched. When the atom relaxes it emits a photon.

This is similar to releasing the string of the bow and letting the
arrow fly.
Normally, an atom will relax from its excited state anytime it feels like it.
However, if another photon comes by that has the same energy as the
atom in the excited state, the atom will decide to give off its photon and
have it join the other. The atom is stimulated by another photon to
release its photon.

E
The E in laser stands for emission.
Emission refers to the giving off of photons.
The excited atom emits a photon when another photon comes by.
In 1917, Einstein described this process as Stimulated Emission.

R
The R in laser stands for radiation.
Radiation is a word that has a bad reputation.
It is a general term for anything that is radiated, or given off by an
object.
For lasers, radiation refers to the photons which are being emitted.

LASERs vs. LEDs

LED

LASER

Broad spectrum (covers a large

range of wavelengths)

Narrow spectrum (covers small

range of wavelengths)

Low output power

High output power

Poor directivity

Good directivity

Incoherent

Coherent

Lesser data rate (up to some

100 Mbps)

Higher data rate (up to some 10

Gbps)

For Multi-Mode fibers only

For Multi- and Single Mode fibers

Smaller transmission distance

Larger transmission distance

Laser
For Optical Fiber System, the laser sources use semiconductor
laser diode, because
The emitted radiation has coherence properties
Output radiation is highly monochromatic
Light beam is very directional
Have response time < 1ns
Have optical bandwidth 2nm
Capable of coupling several tens of mW of power into optical fiber with
small core diameter

Basic principle is stimulated emission under the condition of

population inversion

 Stimulated emission has four important properties:

Narrow spectral width
High intensity (or Power)
High degree of directivity
Coherence

Thus, the lasers find application in long distance communication

In a coherent source, the optical energy is produced in an optical

resonant cavity
The optical energy released from this cavity is highly monochromatic and
the output beam is very directional

The radiation in the laser diode is generated within a Fabry-Perot

resonant cavity.

Fabry-Perot Filter
Consist of the cavity formed by two highly reflective mirror placed parallel to
each other
The input light beam to the filter enters the first mirror at right angle to its surface
The output is the light beam leaving the second mirror

Their main advantage is that they can be tuned to select different channels in a
WDM system

Principle of operation:
The input signal is incident on the left surface of cavity
After one pass through the cavity
A part of light leaves the cavity through right facet, and
A part is reflected back into the cavity

A part of reflected wave is again reflected by the left facet towards right facet

 All those light wavelengths for which the round trip distance
through the cavity is an integral multiple of wavelength
After transmission through right facet add in phase.

Such wavelengths are called the resonant wavelength of cavity.

Tunability:

A Fabry-Perot filter can be tuned to select different wavelength in

one of several ways
Simplest approach is to change the length of cavity

Vary the refractive index within the cavity

 In the LD Fabry-Perot resonator, a pair of flat, partially reflecting

mirrors are directed towards each other to enclose the cavity
The purpose of these mirror is to provide strong optical feedback in
longitudinal direction (also called as positive feedback)
Thereby converting the device into an oscillator with a gain mechanism that
compensate for optical losses in the cavity

 To radiate stimulated light with essential power, we need

not only one photon but millions & millions
We place a mirror at one end of an active layer
Two photons one external and one stimulated are reflected back and
directed to the active layer region
These two photons now work as external radiation and stimulate the emission
of two more photons
These four photons are reflected back by a second mirror positioned at the
other end of active layer
When these four photons pass through the active layer, they again stimulate
the emission of another four photons
This process continues for longer time

Thus these two mirrors provides optical feedback

 In general, full optical output is needed only from the front facet of
the laser
This has to be aligned with an optical fiber

The optical radiation within the resonator cavity of a LD sets up a

pattern of Electric and Magnetic Field lines called the modes of the
cavity
To determine the lasing condition and the resonant frequency, we
express the EM waves propagating in the longitudinal direction
(along the axis perpendicular to mirror) as
E(z,t) = I(z)ej(t-z)
where,
I(z) = optical field intensity
= optical radiation frequency

= propagation constant

 Lasing is the condition at which light amplification becomes

possible in LD
Also the requirement for lasing is that a population inversion be achieved

The radiation intensity at a photon energy h varies

exponentially with the distance z that it traverse along the lasing
cavity, can be given as

I(z) = I(0) exp{[g(h) - (h)]z}

where
= optical field confinement factor (fraction of optical power
in the active region)
g = gain coefficient
= effective absorption coefficient

 Lasing occurs when the gain of one or several guided modes is

sufficient to exceed the optical loss during one roundtrip through the
cavity, i.e., z=2L
During the roundtrip, only the fraction R1 & R2 (mirror reflectivity)
of the optical radiation are reflected from two ends.

Thus,
I(2L) = I(0) R1R2exp{[g(h) - (h)]2L}
where

R = [n1-n2/n1+n2]2

 At the lasing threshold, a steady state oscillation takes place

Thus the magnitude and phase of the returned wave must be equal to those of
the original wave

i.e.,
&

I(2L) = I(0)

for amplitude

e-j2L = 1

for phase

The condition to just reach the lasing threshold is the point at which
the optical gain is equal to total loss (t) in the cavity.
Thus for lasing to occur, we must have g>gth
Mathematical expression

The pumping source that maintain the population inversion must be

sufficiently strong to exceed all the energy-consuming mechanism
within the lasing cavity.

 Mathematical expression for

Laser Diode Rate equation
Quantum Efficiency
Wavelength spacing between the modes of MML

Optical output vs. drive current

Fabry-Perot laser spectrum

Modulation of Laser Diodes

The process of putting information onto a lightwave is called
modulation

For data rate of less than approximately 2.5Gb/s, the process of

imposing information on a laser emitted light stream can be
realized by direct modulation
This involves directly varying the laser drive current with the electrically
formatted information stream to produce a correspondingly varying output
power

For higher data rates, one needs to use a device called an external
modulator to temporally modify a steady optical power level
emitted by the laser
These modulators are available commercially either as a separate device or
as an integral part of the laser transmitter package

 The basic limitation on the direct modulation rate of laser diodes

depends on the spontaneous and stimulated emission carrier
lifetimes (sp & st) and on the photon lifetime (ph)
The spontaneous emission carrier lifetime is a function of the semiconductor
band structure and the carrier concentration.
At room temperature, sp = 1ns in GaAs-based materials for dopant concentration on the
order of 1019cm-3.

The stimulated emission carrier lifetimes depends on the optical density in

the lasing cavity and is on the order of 10ps
The photon lifetime is the average time that the photon resides in the lasing
cavity before being lost either by absorption or by emission through the
facets

A laser diode can be pulse-modulated since the photon lifetime is

much smaller than the carrier lifetime

 If the laser is completely turned off after each pulse, the

spontaneous carrier lifetime will limit the modulation rate
This is because, at the onset of a current pulse of amplitude Ip, a period of
time td is needed to achieve the population inversion necessary to produce a
gain that is sufficient to overcome the optical losses in the lasing cavity
td = ln [Ip/Ip+(IBIth)]
Here, the delay time can be eliminated by dc-biasing the diode at the lasing
threshold current
Pulse modulation is then carried out by modulating the laser only in the operating region
above threshold

Laser Linewidth
In non-semiconductor lasers, the noise arising from spontaneous
emission effects result in a finite spectral width or linewidth for
the lasing output

However, in a semiconductor material laser, both the optical gain

and refractive index depend on the actual carrier density in the
medium
This leads to an index-gain coupling mechanism, which give rise to an
interaction between phase noise and the light intensity

The linewidth is inversely proportional to the output power

Thus it decreases as the desired output power increases

The spectral width of a laser can also increase significantly when

direct modulation is used to vary the light output level
This line broadening is referred to a chirping effect

External Modulation
When direct modulation is used in a laser, the process of turning
the laser ON and OFF with an electrical drive current produces a
widening of the laser linewidth
This phenomenon is referred to as chirp, and make directly modulated lasers
undesirable for operation at data rates greater than about 2.5Gb/s

For higher data rates, the external modulators are used

Here, the optical source emits a constant amplitude light signal which enters
the external modulator
Thus, instead of varying the amplitude of the light coming out of the laser,
the electrical driving signal dynamically changes the optical power level
that exits the external modulator
This process thus produces a time-varying optical signal

Two main devices are the electro-optical and electro-absorption modulator

Operational concept of an external modulator.

 The electro-optical modulator is made of lithium niobate (LbNiO3)

Here, the light beam is split in half and then sent through two
separate paths

A high-speed electrical signal then changes the phase of the light

signal in one of the paths
This is done in such a manner that when the two halves of the signal meet
again at the device output, they will recombine either constructively or
destructively

The constructive recombination produces a bright signal and

correspond to a 1 pulse
While, the destructive recombination results in no light at the output, and
correspond to a 0 pulse

LbNiO3 modulators are separately packaged devices, and can be up

to 12cm long

Operational concept of an electro-optical lithium niobate external modulator

 The electro-absorption modulator is made of indium phosphate

(InP)
It operates by having an electric signal change the transmission
properties of the material in the light path to make it either
transparent during a 1 pulse or opaque during a 0 pulse
Since InP is used as the material for this modulator, it can be
integrated onto the same substrate.

Temperature Effects
Temperature dependence of the threshold current Ith(T) is an
important factor to consider in the application of laser diodes
This parameter increases with temperature in all types of semiconductor
laser because of various complex temperature-dependent factors
However, the temperature variation of Ith can be approximated as
Ith(T) = Izexp(T/T0)

For a particular laser diode, the threshold current increases by a

factor of about 1.4 between 20 and 600C (as in plot)
In addition, the lasing threshold can change as the laser ages

Hence, if a constant optical output power level is to be maintained

as the temperature of the laser changes or as the laser ages
It is necessary to adjust the dc-bias current level
Another possible method for achieving this automatically is an optical
feedback scheme

Temperature dependence

 Optical feedback can be carried out by using a photodetector to

sense the variation in emitted optical power
The photodetector compares the optical power output with a
reference level, and
adjusts the dc-bias current level automatically to maintain a constant peak
light output relative to the reference
The photodetector used must have a stable long term Responsivity which
remains constant over a wide temperature range

Another standard method of stabilizing the optical output of a

laser diode is to use a miniature thermoelectric cooler
This device maintains the laser at a constant temperature and thus stabilizes
the output level

Light Source Linearity

High-radiance LEDs and Laser Diodes are well suited optical
sources for wideband analog applications
provided a method is implemented to compensate for any nonlinearities of
these devices

In an analog system, the time-varying electric analog signal s(t) is

used to modulate an optical source directly about a bias current
point IB
With no signal input, the optical power output is Pt
Whereas, for the applied signal s(t), the optical output power is

P(t) = Pt[1+ms(t)]
here, m is the modulation index, defined as
m = I/IB

Bias point and Amplitude Modulation range

Where IB = IB for LED and IB = IB Ith for Laser Diodes

The parameter I is the variation in current about the bias point

To prevent distortions in the output signal

the modulation must be confined to the linear region of the curve for optical
output Vs drive current

If I is greater than IB (m>100%), the lower portion of the signal

gets cut off, and severe distortion will result
Typical m values for analog application range from 0.25 to 0.50

 In analog applications, any device nonlinearities will create

frequency components in the output signal that were not present in
the input signal
Two important nonlinear effects are harmonic and inter-modulation
distortions

If the signal input to a nonlinear device is a simple cosine wave

x(t) = Acost, the output will be
y(t) = A0 + A1cost + A2cos2t + A3cos3t +
Here, the output signal will consist of a component at the input frequency
plus spurious components at zero frequency, at the second harmonic 2, at
the third harmonic 3, and so on
This effect is known as harmonic distortion

The amount of nth-order distortion in dB is given as 20log(An/A1)

 To determine intermodulation distortion, the modulating signal

of a nonlinear device is taken to be the sum of two cosine waves as
x(t) = A1cos1t + A2cos2t

The output signal will then be of the form

y(t) = Bmn cos(m1+n2)t
where m and n = 0, 1, 2, 3,

This signal includes all the harmonics of 1 and 2 plus cross product
terms such as 2 1, 2 + 1, 2 21, 2 + 21, and so on
The sum and difference frequencies give rise to intermodulation distortion
The sum of the absolute values of the coefficients m and n determines the
order of the IM distortions

 In general, the odd-order IM products having m=n 1 (such as

21 2, 22 1, 32 21, etc.) are the most troublesome
Since they may fall within the bandwidth of the channel

Of these, usually only the third order terms are important

Since the amplitude of higher-order terms tend to be significantly smaller

Finally, these IM products can be eliminated by using appropriate

filters in the receiver