news digest ♦ Lasers
University of Science and Technology has evolved into a multidisciplinary university with optoelectronics technology as its main focus, along with the integration of optics, mechanics, electronics, computer science and materials science.
JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder (CU).
Lasertel to light up capacity
with Veeco MBE system Veeco’s GEN200 Edge system is suited to growing gallium arsenide and indium phosphide based wafers for devices such as pump lasers, VCSELs and HBTs
Lasertel, a subsidiary of SELEX Galileo is purchasing a second high-throughput, multi-wafer GEN200 Edge MBE production system from Veeco to increase its manufacturing capacity for laser diodes.
“The additional GEN200 Edge production MBE system provides the extra capacity required to support the increased demand for Lasertel devices. The GEN200 system offers advanced automation, precise process control, and in-situ process monitoring. It is the core enabling technology for Lasertel’s leading-edge, high performance semiconductor diode laser devices,” says Mark McElhinney, President of Lasertel.
Lasertel is enhancing the manufacturing capabilities of its high volume, semiconductor laser fabrication and packaging facility in Tucson, Arizona to support growing demand for its current class-defining product portfolio. This brings its in- house complement of MBE tools to four with the latest to be used to accelerate the development of next-generation, high performance diode laser products. The expansion is planned to be completed by Q4, 2012.
Jim Northup, Vice President and General Manager of Veeco’s MBE Operations, concludes, “We look forward to supporting Lasertel in their continued growth with the Veeco GEN200 system, part of our suite of the industry’s most cost-effective and highest-capacity production MBE systems.”
Super-radiant laser (Credit: Burrus/NIST) New lasers are ‘Superradiant’
The novel laser traps a million rubidium atoms in a space of about 2 centimetres between two mirrors. The atoms synchronise their internal oscillations to emit laser light
Physicists at JILA have demonstrated a novel “superradiant” laser, which they say, has the potential to be 100 to 1,000 times more stable than the best conventional visible lasers.
This type of laser could boost the performance of the most advanced atomic clocks and related technologies, such as communications and navigation systems as well as space- based astronomical instruments.
The JILA laser prototype relies on a million rubidium atoms doing a kind of synchronised line dance to produce a dim beam of deep red laser light.
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net April/May 2012
JILA’s superradiant laser traps 1 million rubidium atoms in a space of about 2 centimetres between two mirrors. The atoms synchronise their internal oscillations to emit laser light.
An ordinary laser relies on millions of particles of light (photons) ricocheting back and forth between two mirrors, striking atoms in the lasing material and generating copies of themselves to build up intense light.
Photons with synchronised wave patterns leak out of the mirrored cavity to form a laser beam. The laser frequency, or colour, wobbles slightly because the mirrors are vibrating due to either the motion of atoms in the mirrors or environmental disturbances. This could be as subtle as people walking past the room or cars driving near the building.
JILA says this doesn’t happen in its new laser simply because the photons don’t hang around long enough. The atoms are
JILA/NIST physicist James Thompson says the new laser is based on a powerful engineering technique called “phased arrays” in which electromagnetic waves from a large group of identical antennas are carefully synchronised to build a combined wave with special useful features that are not possible otherwise.
“It’s like what happens in the classical world but with quantum objects,” Thompson explains. “If you line up lots of radio antennas that each emit an oscillating electric field, you can get all their electric fields to add up to make a really good directional antenna. In the same way, the individual atoms spontaneously form something like a phased array of antennas to give you a very directional laser beam.”
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