Techniques des lasers

Master 2 Optique, Matière à Paris

Master en Ingénierie Optique

2023-2024

Sylvain Barbay
Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies
C2N, Palaiseau

sylvain.barbay@c2n.upsaclay.fr
http://www.c2n.universite-paris-saclay.fr/fr/
 Outline
Techniques des lasers
Introduction
Historical context
Economical context
Why lasers ? Notes on SC lasers
CW lasers
Coherence
Spectral linewidth
Laser stabilization
Distributed FeedBack and Distributed Bragg Reflector DL
Applications of cw lasers
Historical context
 1917 1954

Einstein : stimulated emission Schawlow & Townes :

MASER (ammoniac : l~1cm)

1960 1961 1962 1963 1964

Theodore Mainman Hargrove, Fork,

Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, Calif. : Robert Hall : Pollack : ML laser Kumar Patel :
first visible laser (Ruby) semiconductor laser CO2 laser
Gordon Gould 1st laser McClung/Hellwarth :
PhD Columbia Univ. (coined laser) eye surgery !
Q-switching 1st
Fiber Laser
 1970 1976 1977

Basov : 1st Excimer laser FEL 1st commercial installation

Alferov : 1st RT SC laser of a Bell Labs fiber optic
lightwave communications system
under the streets of Chicago.

1978 1982 1976 1982

Philips : Laser Disc Ti:Sa laser audio CD debuts.

and then CD for short optical pulses Billy Joel fans rejoice,
as his 1978 album “52nd Street”
is the first to be released on CD !
1994 1996 ... 2010 2015 2018 2023

Capasso et al : Ketterle : pulsed Blatt-Schmidt : Unesco IYL G. Mourou L’huillier,

QCL atom laser single atom laser Nobel physics Agostini,
(matter wave) Ultrashort Kausz
pulses (1985) Nobel physics
Attosecond
source : http://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=42279
optics (1985)
 Economical context

source : Laser Focus World

 Consumer electronics—notably smartphones and autonomous vehicle lidar—are driving
growth to new heights for laser manufacturers and laser materials processing equipment
providers and, in turn, enabling markets that need yet more lasers.

There is a reason lidar is becoming ubiquitous. The ranging capability of lasers cannot be matched by visual
camera technology-case in point: the Tesla car on Autopilot could have seen that semi-trailer truck and
avoided the tragic collision that made headlines in late June 2016 had it been equipped with a lidar system.

...the key drivers for the laser market in 2017 were consumer electronics devices and China, and
the biggest winners on the technology side were fiber lasers, light detection and ranging (lidar)
lasers, and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs)... In short, lasers are playing a key
role in speeding the fabrication of the semiconductor wafers and consumer appliances that are
hungry for yet more lasers.
Smartphones

Assembling an iPhone (or pretty much any smartphone) involves a dozen or more laser-based processes,
including cutting glass, engraving parts, and drilling circuit boards.

(OLED) display, which has Coherent—a major provider of excimer lasers used in the fabrication of these
displays

VCSELs for 3D sensing and ranging applications,

 More exotic applications
Laser fence !

The European Commission is funding a trial to see if a laser

can scare rats and other rodents from crops in order to
eliminate harmful poisons

3D printing : laser material additive Bird Control Group focuses on using lasers to divert flying pests from valuable
crops like blueberries
manufacturing
Photonics Market Analysis
The Global Photonics Market was valued at USD 722.31 billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach USD 1089.00 billion by 2027,
registering a CAGR of approximately 7.54% during 2022-2027.

Photonics is widely regarded as a critical enabling technology for developing smart systems that efficiently use energy without sacrificing
overall system efficiency. Many verticals, including healthcare, automotive, communications, manufacturing, and retail, are leveraging the
technology to attain higher efficiency, driving growth. The investments from these sectors also have witnessed significant growth in the
recent past.

With photonics being a core technology of multiple industries, the consumption of the technology is witnessing rapid growth, with the
market expanding in new verticals. Thus, the market is witnessing a robust growth rate.

Over the past few years, there has been an increasing trend of LiDAR or additive manufacturing in photonics. LiDAR has been used to
study the distribution of gases and contaminants in the atmosphere for decades. In recent years, it has become a critical technology for
autonomous driving. The advancements in LiDAR mapping systems and their enabling technologies penetrated different verticals, like
aerospace and defense, corridor mapping and topographical survey, automotive, mining, oil and gas, and other verticals, which are
increasing the scope of the market.

Compared to conventional products, the high initial cost of silicon-enabled products and devices hinders the deployment of technology in
many fields. While the technology provides higher performance and efficiency, photonics-based devices remain inaccessible to a majority
of the small- and medium-sized end-users in various verticals due to limited budgets.

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected many industries. Due to the nationwide lockdown globally, many photonic devices manufacturing
companies face supply chain interruption and manufacturing inefficiency. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has expanded the scope of
photonic devices in the healthcare industry. Moreover, with the growing adoption of technologies, like facial recognition amid the
pandemic, the scope of photonic sensors may expand due to its technological advancement.
Photonics Market Trends
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Photonics Market according to our research
experts:
Applications of Silicon Photonics to Gain Market Share in Data Communication
The growing use of optical solutions in communication technologies, such as optical broadband, is
expected to drive the demand for technology in the market, with the segment commanding a major market
share.
As the growing use of optical networks is part of the infrastructure, the investment from telecommunication
companies in enhancing the legacy networks is expected to drive the demand. Telephone companies were
the first to replace their old copper wire systems with optical fiber lines. Currently, telephone companies use
optical fiber throughout their systems as the backbone architecture and a long-distance connection between
the city phone systems.
Moreover, with the proliferation of technologies and the growing consumption of video content over the
internet, the demand for broadband is increasing worldwide. According to TeleGeography’s submarine cable
map, submarine cables act as the backbone of the internet. There are about 300 subsea cables that
interconnect countries and continents.
In the past few years, cloud and content providers attempted to attract more users and offer reliable
bandwidth-intensive services, thus increasing the popularity of the submarine infrastructure. The lifetime of
submarine cables is expected to be about 25 years.
Photonics provides novel and disruptive techniques required to cope with the increasing bandwidth capacity
requirements, particularly in the backbone networks.
Fiber optics can also handle real-time data collection and transfer, as it can support the bandwidth levels for
futuristic technologies, such as 5G, IoT, and Big Data. In the process, mobile edge computing and several
small cells (or nodes) are needed to eliminate network bottlenecks. These node deployments often utilize
the technology of the millimeter-wave spectrum by relying heavily on the fiber-cabled connections for the
backhaul portion of the network.
THE MARKET SEGMENTS Materials processing and lithography continue to
dominate laser sales in 2018—not far behind is
communications and data storage, with
instrumentation, medical, and displays following the
lead

In addition to lidar, Dexheimer sees laser additive

manufacturing (AM) as another hub of Merger & Acquisition
activity upstream from the laser itself, with much larger
market potential than devices alone. Like lidar, AM is
enabled by laser devices, but represents a complete
system offering that allows a company to play across
multiple industries and again, provide data-rich or digital
interconnectedness capabilities for its end-users.

Laser revenues for materials processing and lithography

were once again the largest segment in 2016 at $4.072
billion. Communications and optical storage laser sales
were a close second at $3.732 billion, followed by lasers
for the scientific R&D and military markets at $877 million.
The remainder of the revenue pie, in order of descending
sales, is lasers for medical and aesthetic applications at
$838 million, instrumentation and sensor markets at $608
million, and the combined entertainment, displays, and
image-recording segments at $268 million.
 Historical, mature, context-dependent markets
Industrial revenues by laser type
Materials processing & lithography Communications & optical storage

Includes all laser diodes used in

telecommunications, data
communications, and optical storage
applications, including pumps for
Includes lasers used for all optical amplifiers.
types of metal processing "The high-speed optical networking hardware market,
(welding, cutting, annealing,
which includes [distributed Bragg reflector] DBR
lasers, modulators, and coherent components that
drilling); semiconductor and
comprise the majority of today’s 100G transceiver
products, is cyclical,"
microelectronics manufacturing ...cloud computing, business Ethernet, health IT,
(lithography, scribing, defect and robotics […].

repair, via drilling); marking of “Global Internet Traffic is set to double in the next
3 years, from around 100 Exabytes per month in 2017
all materials; and other to an estimated 200 Exabytes a month in 2020,”

materials processing (such as Regarding the use of lasers for cellular backbones,
most 4G deployments are complete worldwide,
cutting and welding with 5G deployments and upgrades yet to occur.

organics, rapid prototyping, VCSELs are very much in the present. Since
entering the 850 nm VCSEL business in 1998 to
micromachining, and grating primarily serve high-speed datacom and sensing
markets and then expanding into 1310 nm VCSEL
manufacture). Also includes production for HDTV, home networking, Fibre Channel,
and Ethernet as well as metro telecom applications,
lasers for lithography. Finisar (Sunnyvale, CA) has shipped more than 150
million VCSELs, […] in 2016

2019 Finisar’s success continues to be fueled by the

surge in VCSEL sales that we reported
 Small/medium size, rising markets

Scientific research & military Medical & aesthetic

Includes lasers used for Includes all lasers used for

fundamental research and ophthalmology (including
development, and new and refractive surgery and
existing military applications, photocoagulation),
such as rangefinders, surgical, dental, therapeutic,
illuminators, infrared (IR) skin, hair, and other cosmetic
countermeasures, and applications.
directed-energy weapons
Strongest were medical lasers used for beauty
research. and aesthetic applications. Applications here
include tattoo, wrinkle, and hair removal, skin
...fiber-laser geometry will continue to increase its market
share and allow further scaling of output power in resurfacing, and skin lightening.
continuous and pulsed operation with excellent beam
quality and highest efficiency. Particularly interesting are A second strong area was surgical lasers. For
fiber laser-based secondary sources with emission certain types of surgery, like heart, oral, and
wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and prostate surgery, lasers are proving that they
terahertz regions, which basically open up new can produce better outcomes at less total cost.
applications.”
Optical frequency combs are used in diverse areas of dental and eye applications, these two areas
scientific research, including spectroscopy, quantum were flat in 2017. The lasers used for eye
cryptography, and precision timekeeping, among others. surgery gained lots of popularity at the same
time laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis
The U.S. Navy has asked to develop a 65 kW laser
weapon … U.S. Air Force is working on aircraft-mounted
(LASIK) and similar photorefractive keratectomy
laser weapons to disable or destroy enemy aircraft (PRK) became popular. The number of these
missiles. Based on diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) or surgeries performed peaked in 2007, since then,
fiber-laser technology. Benefits to the laser industry the numbers have dropped. Adoption of lasers
include production of laser diodes needed to pump these by dentists has remained slow.
weapons.
 Instrumentation & sensors Entertainment, displays & printing

Includes lasers used for light

shows, games, digital cinema,
Includes lasers used within front and rear projectors,
biomedical instruments, picoprojectors, and laser
analytical instruments (such as pointers. Also includes lasers
spectroscopy), wafer and mask for commercial pre-press
inspection, metrology, levelers, systems and photofinishing, as
optical mice, gesture recognition, well as conventional laser
lidar, barcode readers, and other printers for consumer and
sensors. commercial applications.
lasers outperform lamps and, increasingly,
The instrumentation and sensors laser segment is LEDs at all grades of projection applications
not on of the largest laser segments, but lately it is a
segment that hasbeen growing very strongly. This ...lasers are being used increasingly in business
segment includes lasers used for spectroscopy and and picoprojector applications, as well as
flow cytometry, lasers used in lidar, and lasers digital cinema applications. This year, we
used in smartphones for other 3D sensing expect over 2600 new cinema screens to use
applications. Of these applications, 3D sensing in laser lighting.
smartphones is driving the most growth...
Of the nine subsegments we follow in sensing, 3D
sensing laser revenue is almost 5X larger than
the next largest sub- A second large application segment in this area
segment, flow cytometry, ... is laser light shows.
 What kind of lasers ?
Why lasers are useful ?

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Properties :
-
-
-
-
-
 What kind of lasers ?
Why lasers are useful ?

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Properties :
- Coherence (spatial and temporal)
- Brightness [Wsr-1cm-2]
- Spectral purity
- Low divergence
- Cw or ultrashort optical pulses (~ few 100s attoseconds !)
 Semiconductor lasers
VCSEL : Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser QCL : Quantum Cascade Laser
/
Edge Emitting Laser (EEL)

WxDxH (µm)
~5x5x10

~500x5x2 Photonic crystal laser, nanolaser

VECSEL :
Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser
Gain in semiconductor lasers
 Optical pumping

Electrical pumping
 Non-semiconductor lasers
Gas lasers Fibre lasers
CO2 lasers, HeNe lasers, ...

Solid-state lasers Disc lasers

Ti:Sa, NdYAG, YLF, ...
 Longitudinal and Transverse modes

Idealized cavities with infinite plane mirrors:

Resonance condition for mode (plane wave)

Round-trip phase = multiple of 2 pi

L0 L0

→ longitudinal modes
Taking into account finite size mirrors and cavity transverse boundary conditions

with A(x,y,z,t) complex wave amplitude.

A must satisfy all the boundary conditions

U can writes:

Hermite-Gauss modes TEMn,m:

Hn, Hm are Hermite polynomials

 R U can writes:
Hermite-Gauss modes TEMn,m:
0 L z

Because of cavity (plano-concave) we must have the waist in z=0 and R(L)=R. We can
compute the resonance condition at x=y=0. The accumulated phase for a single propagation
between 0 and L is

and this must be a multiple of π (2π for round trip). Let us compute the resonant modes for a given
cavity length L:

with

Note that the waist is known since

For a given “family” of modes, the FSR (free spectral range) is

Depending of the parameters, we may have different situations

FSR

0,0,p-1 0,0,p
1,0,p
0,0,p+1 ν
0,1,p
2,0,p
1,1,p
0,2,p

FSR

0,0,p-1 0,0,p 0,0,p+1

1,0,p
ν
0,1,p
2,0,p
1,1,p
0,2,p
 Laguerre Gauss modes

HG and LG modes are possible basis for any modal decomposition (in paraxial approximation)
 CW lasers
Continuous-wave lasers :
Constant output power
monomode/multimode
applications to
– metrology
– laser pointers, etc...
 What is coherence ?
A real E.M. wave is not perfectly monochromatic and does not
emanate from a point source. Hence we define the notions of :
Temporal coherence
Ability to produce interference fringes in a Michelson
interferometer with a given delay :

coherence time ¿c → coherence length c¿c

Spatial coherence
Ability to produce interferences in a Young slit experiment. If the
slits are close, sources are correlated and produce high contrast
fringes. If the slits are remote, fringes may have less contrast if
sources are less correlated → correlation length Lc
P2{P1 L3{L2
Examples of axial coherence length
We introduce the 1st order complex coherence function for complex scalar fields

Some kind of averaging (temporal or statistical)

Stationary fields : correlation only depends on time difference

For ergodic fields, ensemble (statistical) averaging is the same as temporal averaging
 Note that the intensity (as measured e.g. by a photodetector that is sensitive only to
the average over many periods of the electric field modulus squared)
is proportional to the self-coherence function for zero time delay

Michelson interferometer (stationary and ergodic case) :

(½ because I0/4)
Degree of self-coherence :

It can be shown that

Degree of coherence for monochromatic light :

→ I(P) is an oscillating function of time delay

Degree of coherence for quasi-monochromatic light :
The complex field writes

And corresponds to the real electric-field

A(t) and f(t) slow varying functions of time. Fourier components :

Since Er(t) is real, we have

 Normalized spectral density

That relates the real EM field to the real part of the spectrum.
We also have for a Cx field :

Coherence function :
Considering

Wiener-Khinchin theorem
Auto-correlation FT spectral density
with Power spectral density
PSD
We also have by inverting the expression :

Normalized spectral density function

Degree of coherence for quasi-monochromatic light :

As an example let us consider a Gaussian pulse with carrier frequency

The complex field writes Its Fourier decomposition is

Its inverse Fourier transform is

Re[E(t)]

t
to be evaluated … One shows that :

DnBW=1/(sp)
 s → ∞ : plane wave → no fading of contrast
Hence freq bandwidth  1/s
large coherence time (or length)
s → 0 : ultrashort pulse → strong fading of contrast
large freq bandwidth
small coherence time (or length)
Note on the calculus of the FT of a Gaussian :
(here a<0 !)
y = -ia
y

x
-t t
Consider by virtue of residue theorem

with

because on G3

On G2 and G4

Because y is bounded

Hence
2nd method :
 Spectral linewidth of lasers
Electric field :
= instantaneous pulsation

!0 : carrier frequency (fast, ~1014 Hz)

_ : slow component (envelope modulation)
Á(t)
A(t) : slow envelope

In a laser, consider an emitter that undergoes random phase changes due to various
processes (e.g. collisions if atoms in a gas, spontaneous emission, ...) :
contributes to linewidth !
 amplitude fluctuations << phase fluctuations for laser

Hyp : phase fluctuations are a Wiener process (=Brownian motion, result of many small and
independent phase jumps because e.g. of spontaneous emission) and therefore the
probability density function p(¢Á) for the stochastic process ¢Á is a normal distribution
function such that :

Wiener process W : Wt+u-Wt a une distri-

bution normale de variance prop à tau

with ⟨(¢Á)2⟩ the 2nd order moment of ¢Á

Wiener processes
Hence

Replacing in ¡(¿), integrating for calculating W(º), one obtains :

Lorentzian lineshape ! FWHM :

 Sine function with random phase jumps. Phase jumps are uniformly distributed
With normally distributed time intervals
of mean duration 10 and variance
2.5

Power spectrum is Lorentzian !

Coherence of a multimode laser
Laser with 5 modes separated by c/2L=Dn, central frequency n0

Suppose an=1 : all modes have equal spectral weight

However and
 Généralisation pour N modes :

Re[g(t)]

0.4 0.8

n0 n0=10, Dn=0.1 n0=10, Dn=0.2 n0

Take home message :

- Lasers have temporal and spatial coherence

- Temporal coherence is linked to the ability to have interference fringes in a
Michelson interferometer
- Spatial coherence is linked to the possibility to have interference fringes in a Young
slit experiment

Temporal coherence can be analyzed through the first order complex coherence
function :

And the intensity at the Michelson interferometer output is :

Temporal coherence time is inversely proportional to the spectral bandwidth of the

source. The power spectral density of the source is related to the 1 st order coherence
function through the Wiener Khinchin theorem :
 for Lorentzian lineshape :

Typical applications of low-linewidth, monomode, cw lasers : gas sensing, metrology,

 Single-mode laser linewidth
Schallow-Townes laser linewidth
introducing the total laser power P and the HWHM of the passive resonator linewidth ¢º1/2 ,
one recovers (cf Yariv) the Schallow-Townes linewidth formula (quantum limit for linewidth):

with

One can demonstrate also that ¹=¹0+¹1 P

 For a standard gas laser or solid state laser, with mirror reflectivities R=0.99, l=30cm,
we get :

Rk: photon lifetime tc is related to ¢º1/2 by : ¢º1/2 tc=1/2¼

This leads to typical quantum limit for laser linewidths of the order of 1mHz or less !

In semiconductor laser, cavity length is much smaller : much smaller photon lifetime →
much increased typical quantum limit for linewidth (1MHz !!!)

Other physical (fundamental) limits :

In SC lasers, intensity fluctuations induce phase fluctuations
phase-amplitude coupling constant or Henry enhancement factor, ®
Linewidth increased by a factor (1+®2). In SC lasers, ® ~5 or more
Peterman excess noise factor K.
K can be very large (1000 or more).
Geometrical factor in unstable resonators or in gain-guided lasers
(or more generally when gain and losses are situated in different locations).
What affects linewidth in real systems ?
What affects linewidth in real systems ?

Mechanical and thermal stability

injection (pump) noise : electrical or optical pumping
mode hopping (multimode systems)
polarization hopping
(birefringeance in circular aperture lasers as VCSELs)

Need for stabilization and/or linewidth decreasing strategies

 Laser stabilization
Stabilized High Power Laser for Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors
RIN of a 12W laser system

NPRO : nonplanar ring oscillator

Can detect displacements as
low as 10-18 m !
Willke et al, Journal of Physics: Conference Series 32 (2006) 270–275 Proton size ~ 10-15 m
doi:10.1088/1742-6596/32/1/040
 Laser stabilization
●
Amplitude/Power stabilization
attenuator,
AOM,EOM +Polar Cube Splitter, ...
injection current,
pump, ...

- Ref

Feedback loop

Can achieve very high stability, and even squeezed states !!

 Frequency stabilization
Frequency stabilization to a (high-finesse) Fabry-Perot resonance : side-locking
T

After comparison to locking point signal :

error signal

noise induced jitter

frequency
locking point

Need high finesse for high precision locking

BUT
Pb of locking bandwidth (easy to unlock because high finesse), laser AM
coupled to FM error signal, etc...
 Frequency stabilization : atomic transition reference –
saturation absorption, or Doppler-free, spectroscopy
thin absorption line

atomic transition : a fundamental ref frequency

Vapor cell containing atomic gas : thermal motion

→ Doppler broadening of the line with Maxwellian lineshape

Doppler effect : if one moves toward a moving source (atom), or if a source emitting
waves moves toward us (in our rest frame), its frequency seems reduced
with respect to its frequency in its rest frame.
Example : train approaching : acuter sound. Train moving away : lower note.

! v ! v

Atom « sees » higher frequency ! + kv Atom « sees » lower frequency ! - kv

 as a result, the lineshape of a laser transmitted through a vapor cell containing an
atomic gas is broadened, because you can find moving off-resonance atoms that
become resonant whatever the probe laser frequency.

Absorption from different “velocity classes”

atomic linecentre !0
Idea : saturate absorption of classes of atom with a counter-propagating pump beam

! pump laser
if pump laser is detuned from line-center, the atoms
having a certain speed will be able to absorb light
and will be saturated. For the counter-propagating
Unsaturated lineshape
Absorption dip
probe beam, this means there will be less absorption
at a frequency opposite to the atomic line-center for
Saturated lineshape those saturated atoms.

! probe laser
If the pump is resonant with the atomic line-centre, there appears a dip in the transmission
at the line center !

! probe laser - !0

The dip is not affected by the Doppler broadening because only the saturated atoms,
with zero velocity, are resonant with the laser and are saturated.
One recovers the homogeneous line of the laser or transition.

If laser has high-enough power, pump and probe can be the same !!!.
One can use this feature to lock the laser frequency to the atomic transition.
Frequency stabilization : master oscillator

Master oscillator
“reference”

laser

Beating signal

Beating signal
Frequency stabilization : side locking vs peak locking
Around the peak, error signal too small if no frequency modulation

Amplitude of the output signal gives

directly an error signal

Sidelock Peaklock
●
Pros ●
Pros
●
Don’t modulate ●
Closer to
the frequency of resonance
the laser itself ●
Cons
●
Cons ●
Have to modulate
●
Might be too far laser frequency
away from the
resonant
frequency
Frequency stabilization : Pound-Drever-Hall scheme
●

f0, f0 +/- ­
f0

Diagram for a Pound-Drever-Hall laser-frequency-stabilization system.

Source : Newport Application Note

 If laser resonant with FP mode :

sidebands are reflected with opposite

phase ! while central laser frequency
is transmitted.

incident reflected

The three components of the signal

beat with one another. If one filters only
the part oscillating at the m.f. f0, the
error signal is zero if the laser is tuned
to a F-P resonance !

http://www.newport.com/New-Focus-Application-Note-15-Introduction-
to-Las/979235/1033/content.aspx
 incident field

reflected field

cavity reflectivity response

incident field with frequency modulation

However, we can expand the FM term in series of Bessel functions, therefore :

→ side band generation

 cw terms :

“slow” osc. terms : using

“fast” osc. terms :

If we retain only the beating signal at W, this signal cancels when the laser is tuned to
a cavity resonance (r(!)=0), and non-zero otherwise. To get the error signal, the signal is mixed
with the reference frequency and integrated (lock-in technique)
 Laser line narrowing/tunability in a DL : external cavity
configuration
Laser diodes can have linewidths of 1nm or more !
Solid-state lasers (e.g. Ti:Sa lasers) can generally have better linewidths <1MHz

@ ¸ =1µm, 1nm ↔ 300GHz !

Idea : for a DL use a frequency selective elements for feedback → decrease (or compensate)
Losses for certain frequencies → linewidth narrowing.

+ d=groove period
m=diffraction order

Special case : Littrow µd=µi

Order zero : specular reflection

HERE !!!
Tuning in Littrow configuration

specular
 Output beam direction changes Output beam vertical position changes
With wavelength changes With wavelength changes

Output beam direction is fixed

0th order beam

Coming from
1st Tuning mirr.

0th order beam

Littman-Metcalf
After Sacher Lasertechnik
Ti:Sa laser cavity (Coherent inc.)

Wavelength selection and

tuning
Lasing direction selection

Polarization selection
Birefringeant filters : polarizer @ 45deg + (phase plate+polarizer @ 45deg)^n

1 plate : phase shift

transmitted intensity
after the polarizer

For three plates of width d, 2d, 3d :

T = T1T2T3 = cos2(x) cos2(2x) cos2(3x)

Lyot filter with 3 birefringeant plates

x
 Distributed FeedBack and
Distributed Bragg Reflector DL

Pro : Cons :
Monolithic design Tunability (thermal/electrical)
alignment free larger linewidth than ECDL (external cavity DL)
large cw tuning range
 Periodic index structure

¤ : Bragg period The free-space Bragg wavelength is definded as

R and S satisfy a coupled-mode equation :

: wavevector for waves with wavelength close to ¸

We can solve the system and find the field reflection coefficient :
 · L=5

· L=2

· L=1

¢¯
 DFB laser

where g0 is the gain

The lasing condition writes :

Lasing gain decreases for increasing

feedback · L

There are 2 lasing modes with lowest gain

@ threshold because of symmetry.
Can be leveraged by
special designs (phase shifted Bragg gratings)
 Excerpt from Toptica Photonics datasheet for DL with external grating

SMSR

MSR : Side Mode Suppression Ratio ↔ mode purity

Applications of coherence
in cw lasers
 LIDAR
Light Detection And Ranging
Ranging : laser pulse + timer

Velocimetry/Doppler : coherent detection

Other (Mie, fluoresence, ...)

LIDAR image with scanning

 FMCW LIDAR
Frequency modulated CW
Fixed target
f [Hz] d

Beat signal => freq. diff

t [s] => range

Moving target Local : f

received : f+fD+Df

=> allow to retrieve fD and Df

Df+fD
Df-fD
 Lasers for LIDAR

- usually 905nm/1550nm SC lasers

- eye safety/power (1550 is eyesafe, 905 is not)

- coherent and FMCW : narrow linewidth DBR lasers

- flash LIDAR : high-power VCSEL arrays, MEMS (micromirrors) + single laser

- Need high-sensitivity detectors (APD avalanche photodiode, PM photomultiplicator tube)

 Doppler Velocimetry

The coherent source emits a wave at frequency º

The moving particle “sees” a wave with frequency º -

k.v/2¼

The moving particule is a moving source and scatters

light with another Doppler shift !

Total shift : 2 k.v/2¼

Can be detected with interferometric techniques.

Adequate for particle in a flow, or fluid motion.

 Laser fringes velocimetry

y
Interfringe distance :
µ x

Interferance term :

A.N. : k=2¼ /¸ , ¸=633nm, µ =10deg. Interfringe distance = ¼/2ksin(µ) =1µm

http://www.onera.fr/conferences/mesures-aerodynamique/14-velocimetrie-laser-franges.php
Laser gyroscope
Precision measurement of angular velocity

Used in aeronautics, ships, submarines, ...

Two counter-propagative waves travel in the

Interferometer and recombine on the BS.
Each wave accumulate a phase during the path
The resulting field at the output is :

If the system is at rest, each wave travels an equal

Path. The phases are equal.
 If the cavity rotates, each wave will travel a different time (one sees mirror moving towards
it whereas the other sees the mirrors moving away).
The time spent for each wave writes

Solving for ¿+- gives :

with ¿ = 2¼R/c
for approx. round cavity

Path difference :

Phase difference :

The interferometer output is proportional to sin¢Á

Drawbacks of preceding simple approach :
- small velocities are difficult to measure
- velocity is not known in absolute value but modulo a certain quantity

Idea : put the gain medium inside the rotating cavity.

Frequency difference gives beating signal.

In the previous scheme, phase difference with
equal frequencies gives interference !!!
 OFDR: optical frequency-domain reflectometry
Application : measure the distance from an object or the location of a damage in an optical fiber

If amplitude modulation of a laser :

L
object
index n

amplitude peaks shift if object moves

But unable to tell exact distance because shift is modulo 2¼ !!

NOT a GOOD solution !

Also exist OTDR (time-domain) : send short laser pulse and listen to “echo” from defect.
→ LIDAR : Light Detection and Ranging
However needs very short pulse for good resolution → high bandwidth → high noise ...

Better use frequency modulation ...

 Freq. swept source

/defect

from : http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/8/1164/htm
 If a laser travels in a fiber along z :

where

with is the rate of frequency change

Suppose that the light is reflected by a defect in the test arm at position xd with a
reflection coefficient √Rd and the line attenuation is ® xd .
Similarly, in the reference arm we have a reflector at known position xr and reflector with
known reflectivity √Rr .
The total field back-reflected to the fiber coupler (FC) reads :

dc terms ac terms
If xr = 0 and the maximum length (fiber length) is L, the maximum frequency is
2° L and the position of the defect can be readily obtained by looking at the
spectrum.
Amplitude of the frequency component → strength of the defect

RF signal

Limitations :
needs high spectral purity
linewidth → coherence length (maximum distance)
resolution in distance
 OCT : optical Coherence Tomography

Uses short coherence sources !!

Three-dimensional imaging technique with high spatial

resolution and large penetration depth even in highly
scattering media
Based on measurements of the reflected light from tissue
discontinuities
e.g. the epidermis-dermis junction.
Based on interferometry
interference between the reflected light and the reference beam is
used as a coherence gate to isolate light from specific depth.
 OCT vs. standard imaging
Resolution (log)

1 mm Standard
clinical
Ultrasound
High
100 m frequency

10 m
Confocal
microscopy OCT

1 m

Penetration depth (log)

1 mm 1 cm 10 cm
 OCT: Principle of operation
OCT is analogous to ultrasound imaging
Uses infrared light instead of sound
Speed of sound ~ 1480 m/sec (in water)
Speed of light – 3x108 m/sec

Human skin
5 mm wide x 1.6 mm deep
SpatialResolution: 10-30 μm
Time resolution: 30fs!!!

Interferometry
is used to measure
small time delays
of scattered photons
 Good OCT sources have small coherence length and large bandwidth

DL

Interference fringes observed only when optical path lengths are matched
within the coherence length of the source
 Time domain OCT

Typically needs broadband light sources

→ low coherence sources
→ supercontinuum lasers (cf part II)

Pb : moving mechanical parts, slow

Ultra-high resolution OCT

Image through the skin of a living frog tadpole

Resolution: 3 m

Image obtained by scanning :

Axial resolution ∝ 1/¢º

Lateral resoltion : std resolution µscope objective

Image constrast given by amplitude of interference

fringes of light reflected from tissues with index
contrast

http://rleweb.mit.edu/Publications/currents/cur11-2/11-2oct.htm
Other OCT techniques

(or frequency domain OCT)

 Frequency swept sources for OCT
VECSEL + MEMS tunable filter

VCSEL + tunable Bragg grating mirror