Optical sources 1: the laser

Lect_12
Optical fiber
4th year, Elect. Eng. Dept., ECE
Lecturer: Dr. Emad Tammam
 Outline
• Introduction

• Basic concepts

• Optical emission from semiconductors

• The semiconductor injection laser

• Injection laser characteristics

• Injection laser to fiber coupling

 Introduction
• The optical source is to convert electrical energy in
an efficient manner which allows the light output
to be effectively coupled into the optical fiber.

• Three main types of optical source are:

wideband ‘continuous spectra’ sources
(incandescent lamps);
monochromatic incoherent sources (LEDs);
monochromatic coherent sources (lasers).
• In the early stages, the most powerful
narrowband coherent light sources were
necessary due to severe attenuation and
dispersion in the fibers.
• Gas lasers (helium-neon) were utilized initially.
• Development of the semiconductor injection
laser and the LED, together with the substantial
improvement in the properties of optical fibers,
has given prominence to these two specific
sources.
• The two sources fulfill the major requirements for
an optical fiber emitter
Requirements for an optical fiber emitter
• A size and configuration compatible with
launching light into an optical fiber. Ideally, the
light output should be highly directional.
• Must accurately track the electrical input signal to
minimize distortion and noise. Ideally, the source
should be linear.
• Should emit light at wavelengths where the fiber has
low losses and low dispersion and where the
detectors are efficient.
• Preferably capable of simple signal modulation over a
wide bandwidth extending from audio frequencies to
beyond the gigahertz range.
Requirements for an optical fiber emitter, cont.
• Must couple sufficient optical power to overcome
attenuation in the fiber plus additional connector
losses and leave adequate power to drive the
detector.
• Should have a very narrow spectral bandwidth
(linewidth) in order to minimize dispersion in the
fiber.
• Must be capable of maintaining a stable optical
output which is largely unaffected by changes in an
ambient conditions (e.g. temperature).
• To be cheap and highly reliable in order to
compete with conventional transmission
techniques.
 History of optical sources
• The first-generation optical sources were designed to
operate between 0.8 around 0.85 μm.
• The semiconductor materials used have its emission
characteristics at this wavelength.
• This wavelength avoided the loss incurred in many
fibers near 0.9 μm due to the OH ion.
• These early systems utilized multimode step index
fibers for links of tens of megahertz bandwidth and
several kilometers.
• The LED (being a lower power source generally
exhibiting little spatial or temporal coherence) was
not suitable for long-distance wideband
transmission, although it found use in more moderate
distance applications.
 History of optical sources, cont.
• The LED as a source was enhanced following the
development of multimode graded index fiber.
• The substantial reduction in intermodal dispersion
provided by this fiber type over multimode step index fiber
allowed incoherent LEDs emitting in the 0.8 to 0.9 μm
wavelength band to be utilized for applications requiring
wider bandwidths.
• Development of second-generation optical fiber sources
operating at wavelengths between 1.1 and 1.6 μm where
both material losses and dispersion are greatly reduced.
• In this wavelength region, wideband graded index fiber
systems utilizing LED sources may be operated over long
distances without the need for intermediate repeaters.
• LEDs offer the advantages of relatively simple construction
and operation with the inherent effects of these factors on
cost and extended, trouble-free life.
 History of optical sources, cont.
• The advances in single-mode fiber construction has stimulated the
development of single-mode laser sources.
• These systems are ideally suited to extra wideband, very long-
haul applications.
• Light is emitted from the LED in many spatial modes which cannot be
as efficiently focused and coupled into single-mode fiber.
• More recently advanced LED sources were developed that allowed
moderate optical power levels to be launched into single-mode
fiber.
• However, to date the LED has been utilized primarily as a
multimode source giving acceptable coupling efficiencies into
multimode fiber.
• At present the LED is chosen for many applications using multimode
fibers and the injection laser diode (ILD) tends to find more use as a
single-mode device in single-mode fiber systems.
 Basic concepts
• Unlike the LED, strictly speaking, the laser is a
device which amplifies light.
• LASER as an acronym for “Light Amplification by
Stimulated Emission of Radiation”.
• Lasers are seldom used as amplifiers since there
are practical difficulties in relation to the
achievement of high gain while avoiding oscillation
from the required energy feedback.
 Laser and LED
• The practical realization of the laser is as an
optical oscillator.
• The operation of the device may be described by
the formation of an electromagnetic standing
wave within a cavity (or optical resonator) which
provides an output of monochromatic, highly
coherent radiation.
• LED provides optical emission without an
inherent gain mechanism. This results in
incoherent light output.
 The general principles of laser action
(Absorption and emission of radiation)
• The interaction of light with matter takes place in
discrete packets of energy or quanta, called
photons.
• Absorption and emission of light causes the atom
to make a transition from one discrete energy
state to another.
• The frequency of the absorbed or emitted
radiation f is related to the difference in energy E
between the higher energy state E2 and the lower
energy state E1 by the expression:
• The discrete energy states for the atom
correspond to electrons occurring in particular
energy levels relative to the nucleus.

• A single electron transition between two energy

levels within the atom will provide a change in
energy suitable for the absorption or emission of
a photon.
 Spontaneous and Stimulated emission
• emission process can occur in two ways:
Spontaneous emission in which the atom returns
to the lower energy state in an entirely random
manner;
Stimulated emission when a photon having an
energy equal to the energy difference between the
two states (E2 − E1 ) interacts with the atom in the
upper energy state causing it to return to the lower
state with the creation of a second photon.
 Spontaneous emission process
• The random nature of the spontaneous emission
process where light is emitted by electronic
transitions from a large number of atoms gives
incoherent radiation.
• A similar emission process in semiconductors
provides the basic mechanism for light generation
within the LED
 Stimulated emission process
• which gives the laser
• Firstly, the photon produced by stimulated emission
is of an identical energy to the one which caused it
and hence the light associated with them is of the
same frequency.
• Secondly, the light associated with the stimulating
and stimulated photon is in phase and has the
same polarization.
• In contrast to spontaneous emission, coherent
radiation is obtained.
• When an atom is stimulated to emit light energy by an
incident wave, the liberated energy can add to the
wave in a constructive manner, providing
amplification.
 The Einstein relations
• In 1917 Einstein demonstrated that the rates of
the three transition processes of absorption,
spontaneous emission and stimulated emission
were related mathematically.

• He achieved this by considering the atomic system

to be in thermal equilibrium such that the rate of
the upward transitions must equal the rate of
the downward transitions.
• A photon with energy hf will not necessarily
always stimulate another photon with energy hf.
• Photons may be stimulated over a small range of
energies around hf providing an emission which has a
finite frequency or wavelength spread (linewidth).
• The atom has several sublevels of equal energy
within an energy level which is then said to be
degenerate.
• The degeneracy parameters g1 and g2 indicate the
number of sublevels within the energy levels E1 and
E2 respectively. If the system is not degenerate, then g
1 and g 2 may be set to unity.
 The Einstein relations, cont.
• The population of the two energy levels of such
a system is described by Boltzmann statistics
which give:
 Einstein coefficient of absorption
• As the density of atoms in the lower or ground
energy state E1 is N1, the rate of upward
transition or absorption is proportional to both
N1 and the spectral density ρf of the radiation
energy at the transition frequency f.
• The upward transition rate R12 (indicating an
electron transition from level 1 to level 2) may be
written as:

B12 is known as the Einstein coefficient of

absorption.
 Einstein coefficient of spontaneous emission
• For spontaneous emission the average time
that an electron exists in the excited state
before a transition occurs is known as the
spontaneous lifetime τ21.
• If the density of atoms within the system with
energy E2 is N2, then the spontaneous emission
rate is given by the product of N2 and 1/τ21.
• Spontaneous emission rate = N2 A21
• where A21, the Einstein coefficient of
spontaneous emission, is equal to the reciprocal
of the spontaneous lifetime.
 The rate of stimulated emission
• The rate of stimulated emission = N2 ρf B21,
• where B21 is the Einstein coefficient of stimulated
emission.

• The total transition rate from level 2 to level 1,

R21, is the sum of the spontaneous and stimulated
contributions. Hence:
• For a system in thermal equilibrium, the upward
and downward transition rates must be equal and
therefore R12 = R21 , or:
• Since the atomic system under consideration is in
thermal equilibrium it produces a radiation
density which is identical to black body radiation.
• Planck showed that the radiation spectral density
for a black body radiating within a frequency range
f to f + df is given by
 Einstein relations
• Comparing the two equations, we obtain the
Einstein relations:
and
• When the degeneracies of the two levels are
equal (g1 = g2 ), then the probabilities of
absorption and stimulated emission are equal.
• The ratio of the stimulated emission rate to the
spontaneous emission rate is given by:
 Conditions for stimulated emission

• In order to produce a coherent optical source and

amplification of a light beam the rate of
stimulated emission must be increased.

• For stimulated emission to dominate over

absorption and spontaneous emission in a two-
level system, both the radiation density and the
population density of the upper energy level
N2 must be increased in relation to the
population density of the lower energy level N1 .
Populations in a two-energy-level system

Boltzmann distribution for a A nonequilibrium distribution

system in thermal equilibrium showing population inversion
 Population inversion
• Boltzmann distribution is normal for structures at
room temperature.
• To achieve optical amplification it is necessary to
create a nonequilibrium distribution of atoms such
that (N2 > N1). This condition is known as population
inversion.
• In order to achieve population inversion it is necessary
to excite atoms into the upper energy level E2.
• This process is achieved using an external energy
source and is referred to as ‘pumping’.
• A common method used for pumping involves the
application of intense radiation (e.g. from an optical
flash tube or high-frequency radio field).
• In the former case atoms are excited into the higher
energy state through stimulated absorption.
• In the case of two levels with equal degenerate (or
not degenerate), then B12 = B21. Thus the
probabilities of absorption and stimulated
emission are equal, providing at best equal
populations in the two levels.
• Population inversion, however, may be obtained
in systems with three or four energy levels.
• systems display a central metastable state in
which the atoms spend an unusually long time. It
is from this metastable level that the
stimulated emission or lasing takes place.
Energy-level diagrams showing population inversion
and lasing for two nonsemiconductor lasers

Three-level system Four-level system

• A central metastable state in which the atoms spend an unusually long time.
• It is from this metastable level that the stimulated emission or lasing takes
place.
 Three-level system
• With suitable pumping the electrons in some of the atoms
may be excited from the ground state into the higher level
E2 .
• Since E 2 is a normal level the electrons will rapidly decay by
nonradiative processes to either E1 or directly to E 0 .
• The metastable level E1 exhibits a much longer lifetime
than E2 which allows a large number of atoms to
accumulate at E1.
• Over a period the density of atoms in the metastable
state N 1 increases above those in the ground state N0
and a population inversion is obtained between these
two levels.
• Stimulated emission and hence lasing can then occur,
creating radiative electron transitions between levels E 1 and
E0.
 Drawback with the three-level system
• A drawback with the three-level system is that it
requires very high pump powers because the
terminal state of the laser transition is the ground
state.
• More than half the ground state atoms must be
pumped into the metastable state to achieve
population inversion.
 Four-level system
• is characterized by much lower pumping
requirements.
• The pumping excites the atoms from the ground
state into energy level E3 and they decay rapidly
to the metastable level E2.
• Since the populations of E3 and E1 remain
essentially unchanged, a small increase in the
number of atoms in energy level E2 creates
population inversion, and lasing takes place
between this level and level E 1 .
 Optical feedback and laser oscillation
• Light amplification in the laser occurs when a photon
colliding with an atom in the excited energy state
causes the stimulated emission of a second photon
and then both these photons release two more.
• Continuation of this process effectively creates
avalanche multiplication.
• When the electromagnetic waves associated with
these photons are in phase, amplified coherent
emission is obtained.
• To achieve this laser action it is necessary to contain
photons within the laser medium and maintain the
conditions for coherence.
• This is accomplished by placing or forming mirrors
(plane or curved) at either end of the amplifying
medium
The basic laser structure incorporating
plane mirrors
 Laser’s optical cavity
• The optical cavity formed is more analogous to an
oscillator than an amplifier as it provides positive
feedback of the photons by reflection at the mirrors
at either end of the cavity.
• The optical signal is fed back many times while
receiving amplification as it passes through the
medium.
• The structure therefore acts as a Fabry–Pérot
resonator.
• Although the amplification of the signal from a single
pass through the medium is quite small, after multiple
passes the net gain can be large.
• If one mirror is made partially transmitting, useful
radiation may escape from the cavity.
 Saturation and medium losses
• A stable output is obtained at saturation when
the optical gain is exactly matched by the losses
incurred in the amplifying medium.

• The major losses result from:

• absorption and scattering in the amplifying
medium,
• absorption, scattering and diffraction at the
mirrors,
• nonuseful transmission through the mirrors.
• Oscillations occur in the laser cavity over a small
range of frequencies where the cavity gain is
sufficient to overcome the above losses.
• Hence the device is not a perfectly monochromatic
source but emits over a narrow spectral band.
• The central frequency of this spectral band is
determined by the mean energy-level difference of
the stimulated emission transition.
• Other oscillation frequencies within the spectral
band result from frequency variations due to:
 the thermal motion of atoms within the
amplifying medium (known as Doppler broadening)
 atomic collisions.
 Optical standing waves
• Since the structure forms a resonant cavity, when
sufficient population inversion exists in the
amplifying medium the radiation builds up and
becomes established as standing waves between
the mirrors.

• These standing waves exist only at frequencies for

which the distance between the mirrors is an
integral number of half wavelengths.
 The relative amplification in the laser
amplifying medium showing the broadened
laser transition line or gain curve
 Emission frequencies
• Thus when the optical spacing between the
mirrors is L, the resonance condition along the
axis of the cavity is given by

• where λ is the emission wavelength, n is the

refractive index of the amplifying medium and q is
an integer.
• Discrete emission frequencies f are defined by:

• where c is the velocity of light.

 The longitudinal or axial modes
• The different frequencies of oscillation within the
laser cavity are determined by the various integer
values of q and each constitutes a resonance or
mode.
• for the case when L is along the longitudinal axis
of the structure, the frequencies given are
known as the longitudinal or axial modes.
• The modes are separated by a frequency interval
δf where:
 The mode separation

• The mode separation in terms of the free space

wavelength, assuming δf << f and as f = c/λ, is
given by:

• Then,
• Although a large number of modes may be
generated within the laser cavity, the spectral
output from the device is defined by the gain
curve.

• The laser emission will only include the

longitudinal modes contained within the spectral
width of the gain curve.
(a) The modes in the laser cavity. (b) The longitudinal modes in the laser output
 Transverse laser modes
• Laser oscillation may also occur in a direction
which is transverse to the axis of the cavity.
• This gives rise to resonant modes which are
transverse to the direction of propagation.
• These transverse electromagnetic modes are
designated in a similar manner to transverse
modes in waveguides by TEMlm where the
integers l and m indicate the number of transverse
modes.
• Transverse modes may give rise to a pattern of
spots at the output with specific direction of the
electric field is also indicated.
 Transverse laser modes
• In the case of the TEM00 mode all parts of the
propagating wavefront are in phase.
• This is not so with higher order modes (TEM10 ,
TEM 11 , etc.) where phase reversals produce the
various mode patterns. Thus the greatest degree of
coherence.
• Highest level of spectral purity, may be obtained
from a laser which operates in only the TEM 00
mode.
• Higher order transverse modes only occur when
the width of the cavity is sufficient for them to
oscillate. Consequently, they may be eliminated
by suitable narrowing of the laser cavity.
The lower order transverse modes of
a laser
 Threshold condition for laser oscillation
• steady-state conditions for laser oscillation are achieved
when the gain in the amplifying medium exactly
balances the total losses.
• A minimum or threshold gain within the amplifying medium
must be attained such that laser oscillations are initiated and
sustained.
• The threshold gain may be determined by considering the
change in energy of a light beam as it passes through the
amplifying medium.
• All the losses except those due to transmission through the
mirrors may be included in a single loss coefficient per unit
length, α cm −1 .
• Again we assume the amplifying medium occupies a length
L completely filling the region between the two mirrors
which have reflectivities r 1 and r 2 . On each round trip
the beam passes through the medium twice.
The fractional loss inside the laser cavity
• The fractional loss incurred by the light beam is:

• It is found that the increase in beam intensity

resulting from stimulated emission is exponential.
• If the gain coefficient per unit length produced by
stimulated emission is g cm−1 , the fractional round
trip gain is given by:

• Hence
 The threshold gain
• The threshold gain per unit length may be
obtained by :

• The second term on the right hand side

represents the transmission loss through the
mirrors.
• For laser action to be easily achieved it is clear that
a high threshold gain per unit length is required in
order to balance the losses from the cavity.