Title :
Thermally controlled lateral beam shift and beam steering in semiconductor lasers
Author :
Sun, Yan ; Fanning, C.G. ; Biellak, S.A. ; Siegman, A.E.
Author_Institution :
Edward L. Ginzton Lab., Stanford Univ., CA, USA
Abstract :
We demonstrate a thermally controlled, offset-gain and index-guiding (OGIG) structure, which permits continuous control of output beam position and direction from a semiconductor laser. The gain and index guiding axes in this structure are parallel but transversely offset. For parabolic gain and index profiles the resulting modes will be Hermite-Gaussian modes with complex-valued spot sizes and tilted wavefronts such that the beam emerges from the end face at a tunable angle with respect to the facet normal. An experimental demonstration of thermally controlled mode displacement and beam steering by as much as 15/spl deg/ is obtained by applying asymmetric heating to a semiconductor laser using a microstripe heater.<>
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; laser beams; laser modes; laser tuning; quantum well lasers; refractive index; GaAs; Hermite-Gaussian modes; asymmetric heating; beam steering; complex-valued spot sizes; end face; facet normal; index guiding axes; index profiles; index-guiding structure; microstripe heater; offset-gain; output beam position; parabolic gain; semiconductor laser; semiconductor lasers; thermally controlled; thermally controlled lateral beam shift; thermally controlled mode displacement; tilted wavefronts; transversely offset; tunable angle; Beam steering; Displacement control; Heating; Laser beams; Laser modes; Microstrip; Optical control; Semiconductor lasers; Temperature control; Tunable circuits and devices;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
