Ti:sapphire laser pumped high average power laser crystal Nd:GGG with high efficiency output

High-quality neodymium doped GGG laser crystals have been grown by Czochralski (Cz) method. Results of Nd:GGG thin chip laser operating at 1.064 μm pumped by Ti:sapphire laser operating at 808 nm were reported. The slop efficiency was as high as 20%.

Stress-facilitated LTD induces output plasticity through a synchronized-spikes and spontaneous unitary discharges the CA1 region of the hippocampus

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of the excitatory synaptic inputs plasticity in the hippocampus is believed to underlie certain types of learning and memory. Especially, stressful experiences, well known to produce long-lasting strong memories of the event themselves, enable LTD by low frequency stimulation (LFS, 3 Hz) but block LTP induction by high frequency stimulation (HFS, 200 Hz). However, it is unknown whether stress-affected synaptic plasticity has an impact on the output plasticity. Thus, we have simultaneously studied the effects of stress on synaptic plasticity and neuronal output in the hippocampal CA1 region of anesthetized Wistar rats. Our results revealed that stress increased basal power spectrum of the evoked synchronized-spikes and enabled LTD induction by LFS. The induction of stress-facilitated LTD but not LFS induced persistent decreases of the power spectrum of the synchronized-spikes and the frequency of the spontaneous unitary discharges; However, HFS induced UP in non-stressed animals and increased the power spectrum of the synchronized-spikes, without affecting the frequency of the spontaneous unitary discharges, but HFS failed to induce UP in stressed animals without affecting the power spectrum of the synchronized-spikes and the frequency of the spontaneous unitary discharges. These observations that stress-facilitated LTD induces the output plasticity through the synchronized-spikes and spontaneous unitary discharges suggest that these types of stress-related plasticity may play significant roles in distribution, amplification and integration of encoded information to other brain structures under stressful conditions. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and The Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Output Characteristics of an InP/InGaAsP Triangle Microcavity Laser

Mode competitions between modes with different output coupling efficiencies can result in optical bistability under certain asymmetric nonlinear gain. For a GaInAsP/InP equilateral triangle microlaser with the side length of 10 mu m, the drop of the output power with the increase of the injection current is observed corresponding to transverse mode transitions. Furthermore, the measured laser spectra up to 270 K show that lasing modes coexist with the wavelength interval of 39 nm at 240 K. The emission at 5.2 THz can be expected by the mode frequency beating with the 39 nm interval.

Optical spectral relation between the master and the frequency-locked slave lasers

In this paper, the spectral relation between the master and the frequency-locked slave laser (FLSL) is investigated by the conventional technique of optical intensity modulation and optical heterodyne. Experimentally, we demonstrate that under complete and stable locking condition, the lightwave of the FLSL and the sidebands of the master laser produced by the optical intensity modulation are perfectly coherent (frequency coherence). Referring to our recent studies, the lightwave of the master laser and its corresponding sidebands are also perfectly coherent. Additionally, the spectral structures of two perfectly coherent lightwaves are identical in the level of wave train. Therefore, we indirectly verify that the spectral structures of the FLSL and the master laser are identical in the level of wave train.

IMPROVED PEAK POWER METHOD FOR MEASURING FREQUENCY RESPONSES OF PHOTODETECTORS IN A SELF-HETERODYNE SYSTEM

An improved peak power method for measuring frequency responses of photodetectors in a self-heterodyne system consisting of a distributed Bragg reflector laser is proposed. The time-resolved spectrum technique is used to measure the peak power of the beat signal and the intrinsic linewidth of heat signal for calibration. The experimental results show that the impact of the thermal-induced frequency drift, which is the main reason for producing an error in measurement by conventional peak power method and spectrum power method, can be removed.

Enhancement of the far-field output power and the beam properties of plasmonic very small aperture lasers

The properties of plasmonic very small aperture lasers are shown: these integrate surface plasmon structures with very small aperture lasers. The transmission field can be confined to a spot of subwavelength width in the far field, and according to the finite difference time domain simulation results the focal length of the spot can be modulated using different ring periods. Scanning of the subwavelength gating in the far field has been realized numerically. Such a device can be used with a high-resolution far-field scanning optical microscope.

High-power quantum-dot superluminescent LED with broadband drive current insensitive emission spectra using a tapered active region

High-power and broadband quantum-dot (QD) superluminescent light-emitting diodes are realized by using a combination of self-assembled QDs with a high density, large inhomogeneous broadening, a tapered angled pump region, and etched V groove structure. This broad-area device exhibits greater than 70-nm 3-dB bandwidth and drive current insensitive emission spectra with 100-mW output power under continuous-wave operation. For pulsed operation, greater than 200-mW output power is obtained.

Fabrication and excitation-power-density-dependent micro-photoluminescence of hexagonal nanopillars with a single InGaAs/GaAs quantum well

Hexagonal nanopillars with a single InGaAs/GaAs quantum well (QW) were fabricated on a GaAs (111) B substrate by selective-area metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. The standard deviations in diameter and height of the nanopillars are about 2% and 5%, respectively. Zincblende structure and rotation twins were identified in both the GaAs and the InGaAs layers by electron diffraction. The excitation-power-density-dependent micro-photoluminescence (mu-PL) of the nanopillars was measured at 4.2, 50, 100 and 150 K. It was shown that, with increasing excitation power density, the mu-PL peak's positions shift to a higher energy, and their intensity and width increase, which were rationalized using a model that includes the effects of piezoelectricity, photon-screening and band-filling. It was also revealed that the rotation twins significantly reduce the diffusion length of the carriers in the nanopillars, compared to that in the regular semiconductors.

Mechanism of enhancing output power of plasmonic very-small-aperture lasers

Light transmission through a single subwavelength slit surrounded by periodic grooves in layered films consisting of Au and dielectric material is analyzed by the finite difference time domain method in two dimensions. The results show that the transmission field can be enhanced by the corrugations on the output plane, which is a supplementary explanation for the extraordinary optical transmission.

An ultra-low power CMOS random number generator

This paper proposes an ultra-low power CMOS random number generator (RING), which is based on an oscillator-sampling architecture. The noisy oscillator consists of a dual-drain MOS transistor, a noise generator and a voltage control oscillator. The dual-drain MOS transistor can bring extra-noise to the drain current or the output voltage so that the jitter of the oscillator is much larger than the normal oscillator. The frequency division ratio of the high-frequency sampling oscillator and the noisy oscillator is small. The RNG has been fabricated in a 0.35 mu m CMOS process. It can produce good quality bit streams without any post-processing. The bit rate of this RNG could be as high as 100 kbps. It has a typical ultra-low power dissipation of 0.91 mu W. This novel circuit is a promising unit for low power system and communication applications. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement of the light output power of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes grown on pyramidal patterned sapphire substrates in the micro- and nanoscale

Sapphire substrates were patterned by a chemical wet etching technique in the micro- and nanoscale to enhance the light output power of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs). InGaN/GaN LEDs on a pyramidal patterned sapphire substrate in the microscale (MPSS) and pyramidal patterned sapphire substrate in the nanoscale (NPSS) were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The characteristics of the LEDs fabricated on the MPSS and NPSS prepared by wet etching were studied and the light output powers of the LEDs fabricated on the MPSS and NPSS increased compared with that of the conventional LEDs fabricated on planar sapphire substrates. In comparison with the planar sapphire substrate, an enhancement in output power of about 29% and 48% is achieved with the MPSS and NPSS at an injection current of 20 mA, respectively. This significant enhancement is attributable to the improvement of the epitaxial quality of GaN-based epilayers and the improvement of the light extraction efficiency by patterned sapphire substrates. Additionally, the NPSS is more effective to enhance the light output power than the MPSS. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

High-power operation of uncoated strain-compensated quantum cascade lasers at 4.8 mu m

High-power operation of uncoated 22-mu m-wide quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) emitting at lambda approximate to 4.8 mu m is reported. The emitting region of the QCL structure consists of a 30-period strain-compensated In0.68Ga0.32As/In0.37Al0.63As superlattice. For a 4-mm-long laser in pulsed mode, a peak output power is achieved in excess of 2240mW per facet at 81K with a threshold current density of 0.64kA/cm(2). The effects of varying the cavity lengths from 1 to 4mm on the performances of the QCLs are analysed in detail and the low waveguide loss of only about 1.4 cm(-1) is extracted.

An internally-matched GaN HEMTs device with 45.2 W at 8 GHz for X-band application

Optimized AlGaN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with high mobility GaN channel layer structures were grown on 2-in. diameter semi-insulating 6H-SiC substrates by MOCVD. The 2-in. diameter GaN HEMT wafer exhibited a low average sheet resistance of 261.9 Omega/square, with the resistance un-uniformity as low as 2.23%. Atomic force microscopy measurements revealed a smooth AlGaN surface whose root-mean-square roughness is 0.281 nm for a scan area of 5 x 5 mu m. For the single-cell HEMTs device of 2.5-mm gate width fabricated using the materials, a maximum drain current density of 1.31 A/mm, an extrinsic transconductance of 450 mS/mm, a current gain cutoff frequency of 24 GHz and a maximum frequency of oscillation 54 GHz were achieved. The four-cell internally-matched GaN HEMTs device with 10-mm total gate width demonstrated a very high output power of 45.2 W at 8 GHz under the condition of continuous-wave (CW), with a power added efficiency of 32.0% and power gain of 6.2 dB. To our best knowledge, the achieved output power of internally-matched devices are the state-of-the-art result ever reported for X-band GaN-based HEMTs. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wide-band polarization-insensitive high-output-power semiconductor optical amplifier based on thin tensile-strained bulk InGaAs

A polarization-insensitive semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with a very thin active tensile-strained InGaAs bulk has been fabricated. The polarization sensitivity of the amplifier gain is less than 1 dB over both the entire range of driving current and the 3 dB optical bandwidth of more than 80 nm. For optical signals of 1550 nm wavelength, the SOA exhibits a high saturation output power +7.6 dBm together with a low noise figure of 7.5 dB, fibre-to-fibre gain of 11.5 dB, and low polarization sensitivity of 0.5 dB. Additionally, at the gain peak 1520 nm, the fibre-to-fibre gain is measured to be 14.1 dB.

Low power-consumption and high response frequency thermo-optic variable optical Attenuators based on silicon-on-insulator materials

A novel silicon-on-insulator thermo-optic variable optical attenuator with isolated grooves based on a multimode interference coupler principle is fabricated by the inductive coupled plasma etching technology. The maximum fibre-to-fibre insertion loss is lower than 2.2 dB, the dynamic attenuation range is from 0 to 30 dB in the wavelength range 1500-1600 nm, and the maximum power consumption is only 140 mW. The response frequency of the fabricated variable optical attenuator is about 30 kHz. Compared to the variable optical attenuator without isolated grooves, the maximum power consumption decreases more than 220 mW, and the response frequency rises are more than 20 kHz.