LASER light sources

 What is LASER?
 Emission processes
 How laser oscillates
The LASERs
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission
of Radiation (LASER)
Type of lasers

 Solid state lasers

 Semiconductor lasers
 Gas lasers
 Dye lasers
Absorption and Emission of
Radiation
Initial state Final state

Absorption

Spontaneous
emission

Stimulated
emission
Basic construction of Laser
Photon
Mirror with Mirror with
multiplication
100% partially
reflective reflective
Amplified
light !!
Gain medium

Initial
Laser pump
state
Energy to create non
equilibrium state
 3-level laser system
(solid state laser)

Pumping
 Semiconductor laser system

Heavily
doped

holes
Laser modes
Oscillating laser modes
SLD output Ch. with drive
current
Light output

Spontaneous Stimulated
emission emission

Laser drive current

Factor to be considered for
laser structures
Laser
Structures

Minimum
Low threshold Narrow
threshold
current linewidth
gain
Laser structures
Laser structures

Stripe contact Laser

 Dependencies of Ith and Jth
with laser structures
Ith

Reducing Reducing
cavity Stripe
length L width

Increase threshold  Ith fall ~ 120 mA with

gain, as result Jth increases ~ 6 micron stripe width
 For further decrease contact
 Heat sink problems width Ith does not decrease
 Laser structures
Metal Active region

Oxide
p-AlGaAs
n-GaAs n-AlGaAs

n-AlGaAs n-GaAs
1m substrate

Buried-heterojunction Laser Ith = 30 mA

 Laser structures

DFB Laser

DBR Laser
 Laser structures

2 e 
B 
DFB Laser K

DBR Laser
 Dependence of laser threshold
current with temperature
AlGaAs InGaAsP
Modulation bandwidth
Iout/Iin
Electrical 3 dB point

0.707 Optical 3 dB point

0.50

Frequency
Electrical BW
Optical BW
 Electrical bandwidth
Electrical bandwidth: The ratio of the electrical power output (at the
detector) to the electrical input power
electrical power output (det ector)
REdB  10 log10
electrical power input ( source)
2
I R
REdB  10 log10 out 2 out
I in Rin
2
 I out  Electrical 3 dB point occur when
REdB  10 log10  
I
 in 
 Optical bandwidth
Optical bandwidth: The ratio of the optical power output (received
at the detector) to the optical input power (transmitted at the source)
optical power out (received at det ector)
ROdB  10 log10
optical power in (transmitted at source)

 I out 
ROdB  10 log10  
I Optical 3 dB point occur when
 in 

Example: 7.7 (self study)

 Photodetectors
 What is photodetector (PD)?
 Photodetector properties
 Detector types
 Optical detection principles
 Absorption coefficient
 Quantum efficiency
 Responsivity
 PD structures
 Photodetector types
Photo-
detectors

Photomulti- Vacuum
plier Photo- pn-PD P-i-N PD APD
tubes diodes

PD used in OFC
 What is photodetector
Photodetector is an important elements in OFC, which converts
optical signal into electrical form. A PD should have the
following characteristics:
 High sensitivity at the operating wavelength
 High fidelity
 Short response time to obtain a suitable bandwidth
 Noise should be minimum
 Stability of performance characteristics
 Small size
 Low cost
 V-I characteristics of PD
I
Photovoltaic
Photoconductive
mode
mode
Region 2 Region 1
V

Increasing
optical
Region 3 power
 Photodetection principles

- p n +
hf >Eg
Eg
 Photon absorption in intrinsic
material

E2 To excite an electron incident

photon should have energy
hf >E2 – E1
E2 - E1

E1
 Absorption coefficient
Absorption coefficient is a measure of how good the material is
for absorbing light of a certain wavelength

The photo current Ip produce by

incident light of optical power P0
d

e : Electronic charge
r : Fresnel reflection coefficient
Absorption coefficient of
various materials
 Quantum efficiency
The quantum efficiency n is defined as the fraction of incident photons
which are absorbed by the photodetector and generated electrons which
are collected at the detector terminal

n = Number of electrons collected/ Number of incident photons

re
 rp: Incident photon rate

rp re: Corresponding electron rate

 Relationship between
responsivity and n
Ip
The responsivity R of a photodetector is defined as R ( AW 1 )
P0
where Ip: Photocurrent, P0: Incident optical power

The incident photon rate rp in terms of optical power and

photon energy can be written as
P
r 
p
0

hf
P0
Electron rate can be defined as re  rp 
hf
P0 e Thus
Output photocurrent is: Ip 
hf
 Wavelength dependence of
responsivity

Responsivity (A/W)

0.88 Ideal Si PD
Typical PD

0.44

Exp. 8.1, 8.2

J. Senior 0.5 1.0 c
p-n photodiodes
hf E-Field

Depletion
region
Absorption
region
n
Diffusion region

Load
x
Output Ch. of a typical p-n
photodiodes
Current A High light level

800

600

400
Low light level
200
Dark current (no light)

Reverse bias (V)

10 20 30 40
p-i-n Photodiode
hf E-Field

Depletion region

i
Absorption region

n
Load
x
 p-i-n photodiode structures
Front illuminated Si PD Side illuminated Si PD

Antireflection
Metal contact hf Metal contact
coating

p+
P+
SiO2 i i
Depletion layer n+

n+ Antireflection Reflection
coating coating
Speed of response of PD
There are three main factors that limit the
speed of response of a PD
 Drift time of carrier (depletion region)
 Diffusion time of carriers (outside of
depletion region)
 Transition capacitance
 Speed of response of PD
w
Drift time of carriers through the depletion region: t drift 
vd
w : width of depletion region For electric field 2x104 v/cm, vd=107cm/s,
vd : drift velocity tdrift=0.1 ns when w=10 micron
2
d
Diffusion time of carriers outside the depletion region: t difft 
2 Dc
d : carriers diffusion distance For 10 m diffusion distance, hole
diffusion time 40 ns whereas electron
Dc : diffusion coefficient
diffusion time is only 8 ns
 Speed of response of PD
Time constant incurred by the capacitance of the PD with its load:

A
Cj 
w
To maximize the speed of response, the transit time need to minimize by
Increasing bias voltage
Decreasing layer thickness

Increasing bias voltage resulting to increase drift speed, which lead to

reduce drift time. Further depletion layer thickness may increase with
bias voltage
Quantum efficiency will fall with decreasing layer thickness, w. It also
increase junction capacitance, which lead to rise RC time constant. Thus
device speed will slowdown
 PD response to a rectangular
input pulse
Low C and
W>>1/s
Large C
- +
- +
- +
P n P n P n

Narrow W
W W
Avalanche photodiodes
hf E-field

n
Gain region
p

i Absorption
region

p+
Load
 Silicon reach through APD
n+
E-field

p
Gain region

50m Absorption
region
p+

When reverse biased voltage is 10% less of the avalanche breakdown

limit, the depletion layer reaches through to the  region
APD response time

APD response time is limited by:

 Transit time of the carrier across the
absorption region
 Time taken for avalanche multiplication
 RC time constant
 APD responsivity
Ip
Responsivity for p-i-n PD R ( AW 1 )
P0
MI p
R ( AW 1 ) M: APD gain
P0
Responsivity for p-i-n PD
 Basic structure of an optical
receiver

Optical
signal
PD
Electrical
signal

Preamplifier Post-amplifier Pre-detection

filter
 Sources of noise in an optical
receiver
Photodetector
Electrical
Optical Amplifier
signal
signal
Photo- Avalanche Detector Electronic
detection gain load bias gain

Noise Noise Noise Noise

Excess noise due Thermal • Thermal noise
• Quantum shot
to random gain • Device (active
• Dark current mechanisms element)
• Surface leakage
• Surface leakage
currents
Photodetector noises

2
in : Due to quanta of light generating packets
Q of electron-hole pairs

2
in : Due to thermally generated dark currents
DB occurring in the PD bulk material

2
in : Due to surface leakage currents
DS
 Signal to noise ratio of p-i-n
PD

Beq: Noise equivalent bandwidth

IDB: Bulk leakage current
IDS: Surface leakage current

S/N for shot noise

limited condition:

S/N for thermal noise

limited condition:
 Signal to noise ratio of APD
PD

M: Multiplication factor,
F(M): Excess noise factor due to random fluctuation of APD gain

S/N for shot noise

limited condition:

S/N for thermal noise

limited condition:
APD Noise
1 k
M
exp((1  k ) eW )  k
K:e/h
e: Electron ionization coefficient
h: Hole ionization coefficient

F(M) can be approximated by:

x
F (M )  M
x : is an empirical constant which is less than 1
 APD Noise
F(M) depends on the value of K and type of carrier
undergoing multiplication
KM e  (1  K )(2 M e  1)
Fe ( M ) 
Me
KM h  (1  1 K )(2 M h  1)
Fh ( M ) 
Mh
For Si APD with M=100 and K=0.02, Fe(M) ~ 4
For Ge APD with M=20 and K=0.5 gives Fe(M) ~ 11
 Signal to noise ratio of APD
PD

S/N for shot noise

limited condition:

S/N for thermal noise

limited condition:

S/N for thermal noise

limited condition: