Optical communications

Chapter 3: Optical sources

Content
Semiconductor physics Light emitting diode (LED) Laser diode

Semiconductor Physics
Energy bands
Conductor band is empty of electrons Valence band is full of electrons When excited, electrons can move across the band gap, the material becomes conductive

Semiconductor Physics
PN Junction
n type and p type semiconductor are combined to make semiconductor devices

PN Junction
Reverse biased: increases depletion region, prevents carriers from moving across the junction Forward biased: decreases depletion region, diffuses carriers across the junction

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

LED internal quantum efficiency

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

LEDs characteristics

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

LEDs characteristic

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Sample LED model

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Sample LED model

Laser diode
Laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

Laser diode
Stimulated emission
Normally, the density of excited electrons is small Most photons will be absorbed, stimulated emission is negligible Stimulated emission exceed absorption only if the population of the excited states is greater than that of the ground state This is called population inversion, achieved by pumping technique

Laser diode
Stimulated emission

Laser diode
Laser cavity

Laser diode
Lasers longitudinal mode

Laser diode
Lasing condition

Laser diode
P-I characteristic

Laser diode
Temperature dependent

Laser diode
Modulation limitation
Relaxation frequency of the laser field

f =

1 2 sp ph

ph sp

I 1 I th

Spontaneous lifetime Photon lifetime

Laser diode
Some common laser types
Small edge-emitting LDs generate between a few milliwatts and up to roughly half a watt of output power in a beam with high beam quality.

Laser diode
Some common laser types
Small LDs made as distributed feedback lasers (DFB lasers) or distributed Bragg reflector lasers (DBR lasers) with short resonators can achieve single-frequency operation, sometimes combined with wavelength tunability.

Laser diode
Some common laser types
Monolithic surface-emitting semiconductor lasers (VCSELs) typically generate a few milliwatts with high beam quality.

Laser diode
Sample model

Laser diode

Conclusion