Mechanically tunable conjugated polymer distributed feedback lasers

Herein we report a low-threshold organic laser device based on semiconducting poly(9, 9′ -dioctylfluoren-2,7-diyl-alt-benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) encapsulated in a mechanically stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. We take advantage of the natural flexibility of PDMS to alter the periodicity of the distributed feedback grating which in turn tunes the gain wavelength at which the resonant feedback is obtained. This way, we demonstrate that low-threshold lasing [6.1 μJ cm-2 (5.3 nJ)] is maintained over a large stretching range of 0%-7% which translates into a tuning range of about 20 nm. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Integrated optically triggered polarisation-switching in InGaAsP twin-stripe injection lasers

A new form of ultrafast bistable polarization switching in twin-stripe injection lasers has been observed. For the first time, triggering between bistable states has been achieved by injecting light from a neighboring laser integrated on the same chip. Ultrafast switching times of 250 ps have been measured (detector limited).

Optically triggered polarisation bistability in GaInAsP twin stripe injection lasers using integrated devices

A bistable polarization switching element and optical triggering source has been produced by etching a facet in a twin stripe semiconductor laser. The switching element is formed by a pair of stripe segments at one end of the device and triggered with short light pulses from the other two segments. Detector limited switching risetimes have been measured at 250 ps.

169 GHz repetition rate passively harmonically mode-locked VECSEL emitting 265 fs pulses

High repetition rate passively mode-locked sources are of significant interest due to their potential for applications including optical clocking, optical sampling, communications and others. Due to their short excited state lifetimes mode-locked VECSELs are ideally suited to high repetition rate operation, however fundamentally mode-locked quantum well-based VECSELs have not achieved repetition rates above 10 GHz due to the limitations placed on the cavity geometry by the requirement that the saturable absorber saturates more quickly than the gain. This issue has been overcome by the use of quantum dot-based saturable absorbers with lower saturation fluences leading to repetition rates up to 50 GHz, but sub-picosecond pulses have not been achieved at these repetition rates. We present a passively harmonically mode-locked VECSEL emitting pulses of 265 fs duration at a repetition rate of 169 GHz with an output power of 20 mW. The laser is based around an antiresonant 6 quantum well gain sample and is mode-locked using a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. Harmonic modelocking is achieved by using an intracavity sapphire etalon. The sapphire then acts as a coupled cavity, setting the repetition rate of the laser while still allowing a tight focus on the saturable absorber. RF spectra of the laser output show no peaks at harmonics of the fundamental repetition rate up to 26 GHz, indicating stable harmonic modelocking. Autocorrelations reveal groups of pulses circulating in the cavity as a result of an increased tendency towards Q-switched modelocking due to the low pulse energies.