A laser diode is electrically a
PIN diode. The active region of the laser diode is in the intrinsic (I) region, and the carriers (electrons and holes) are pumped into that region from the N and P regions respectively. While initial diode laser research was conducted on simple P–N diodes, all modern lasers use the double-hetero-structure implementation, where the carriers and the photons are confined in order to maximize their chances for recombination and light generation. Unlike a regular diode, the goal for a laser diode is to recombine all carriers in the I region, and produce light. Thus, laser diodes are fabricated using
direct band-gap semiconductors. The laser diode epitaxial structure is grown using one of the
crystal growth techniques, usually starting from an N-
doped substrate, and growing the I (undoped) active layer, followed by the P-doped
cladding, and a contact layer. The active layer most often consists of
quantum wells, which provide lower threshold current and higher efficiency. A further advantage of OPSLs is invariance of the beam parameters – divergence, shape, and pointing – as pump power (and hence output power) is varied, even over a 10:1 output power ratio.
Generation of spontaneous emission When an electron and a hole are present in the same region, they may
recombine or
annihilate producing a
spontaneous emission — that is, the electron may re-occupy the energy state of the hole, emitting a photon with energy equal to the difference between the electron's original state and hole's state. (In a conventional semiconductor junction diode, the energy released from the recombination of electrons and holes is carried away as
phonons (lattice vibrations) rather than as photons.) Spontaneous emission below the
lasing threshold produces similar properties to an
LED. Spontaneous emission is necessary to initiate laser oscillation, but it is one among several sources of inefficiency once the laser is oscillating.
Direct and indirect bandgap semiconductors The difference between the photon-emitting semiconductor laser and a conventional phonon-emitting (non-light-emitting) semiconductor junction diode lies in the type of semiconductor used, one whose physical and atomic structure confers the possibility for photon emission. These photon-emitting semiconductors are the so-called "
direct bandgap" semiconductors. The properties of
silicon and
germanium, which are single-element semiconductors, have bandgaps that do not align in the way needed to allow photon emission and are not considered
direct. Other materials, the so-called compound semiconductors, have virtually identical crystalline structures as silicon or germanium but use alternating arrangements of two different atomic species in a checkerboard-like pattern to break the symmetry. The transition between the materials in the alternating pattern creates the critical
direct bandgap property.
Gallium arsenide,
indium phosphide,
gallium antimonide, and
gallium nitride are all examples of compound semiconductor materials that can be used to create junction diodes that emit light.
Generation of stimulated emission In the absence of stimulated emission (e.g., lasing) conditions, electrons and holes may coexist in proximity to one another, without recombining, for a certain time, termed the
upper-state lifetime or
recombination time (about a nanosecond for typical diode laser materials), before they recombine. A nearby photon with energy equal to the recombination energy can cause recombination by
stimulated emission. This generates another photon of the same frequency,
polarization, and
phase, travelling in the same direction as the first photon. This means that stimulated emission will cause gain in an optical wave (of the correct wavelength) in the injection region, and the gain increases as the number of electrons and holes injected across the junction increases. The spontaneous and stimulated-emission processes are vastly more efficient in
direct bandgap semiconductors than in
indirect bandgap semiconductors; therefore,
silicon is not a common material for laser diodes.
Optical cavity and laser modes As in other lasers, the gain region is surrounded by an
optical cavity to form a laser. In the simplest form of laser diode, an optical waveguide is made on that crystal's surface, such that the light is confined to a relatively narrow line. The two ends of the crystal are cleaved to form perfectly smooth, parallel edges, forming a
Fabry–Pérot resonator. Photons emitted into a mode of the waveguide will travel along the waveguide and be reflected several times from each end face before they exit. As a light wave passes through the cavity, it is amplified by
stimulated emission, but light is also lost due to absorption and by incomplete reflection from the end facets. Finally, if there is more amplification than loss, the diode begins to
lase. Some important properties of laser diodes are determined by the geometry of the optical cavity. Generally, the light is contained within a very thin layer, and the structure supports only a single optical mode in the direction perpendicular to the layers. In the transverse direction, if the waveguide is wide compared to the wavelength of the light, then the waveguide can support multiple
transverse optical modes, and the laser is known as
multi-mode. These transversely multi-mode lasers are adequate in cases where one needs a very large amount of power, but not a small
diffraction-limited TEM00 beam, such as in printing, activating chemicals, microscopy, or
pumping other types of lasers. In applications where a small, focused beam is needed, the waveguide must be made narrow, on the order of the optical wavelength. This way, only a single transverse mode is supported and one ends up with a diffraction-limited beam. Such single-spatial-mode devices are used for optical storage, laser pointers, and fiber optics. These lasers may still support multiple longitudinal modes, and thus can lase at multiple wavelengths simultaneously. The wavelength emitted is a function of the bandgap of the semiconductor material and the modes of the optical cavity. In general, the maximum gain will occur for photons with energy slightly above the bandgap energy, and the modes nearest the peak of the gain curve will lase most strongly. The width of the gain curve will determine the number of additional
side modes that may also lase, depending on the operating conditions. Single-spatial-mode lasers that can support multiple longitudinal modes are called Fabry-Pérot (FP) lasers. An FP laser will lase at multiple cavity modes within the gain bandwidth of the lasing medium. The number of lasing modes in an FP laser is usually unstable and can fluctuate due to changes in current or temperature. Single-spatial-mode diode lasers can be designed so as to operate on a single longitudinal mode. These single-frequency diode lasers exhibit a high degree of stability, and are used in spectroscopy and metrology and as frequency references. Single-frequency diode lasers are classed as either distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers or distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers.
Formation of laser beam Due to
diffraction, the beam diverges (expands) rapidly after leaving the chip, typically at 30 degrees vertically by 10 degrees laterally. A
lens must be used in order to form a
collimated beam like that produced by a laser pointer. If a circular beam is required, then cylindrical lenses and other optics are used. For single-spatial-mode lasers, using symmetrical lenses, the collimated beam ends up being elliptical in shape, due to the difference in the vertical and lateral divergences. This is easily observable with a red
laser pointer. The long axis of the ellipse is at right-angles to the plane of the chip. The simple diode described above has been heavily modified in recent years to accommodate modern technology, resulting in a variety of types of laser diodes, as described below. == History ==