Title :
Interferometric measurement of lateral phase profile and thermal lensing in broad-area diode amplifiers
Author :
Hall, D.C. ; Goldberg, L. ; Mehuys, D.
Author_Institution :
US Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA
Abstract :
A Mach-Zehnder imaging interferometric is used to directly measure the lateral phase profile in the near field of broad-area semiconductor optical amplifiers with lambda /25 phase resolution, or 0.1 degrees C in temperature. The quadratic thermally induced phase distortion and its equivalent thermal lens focal length are characterized. Anomalous localized phase variations are correlated to thermal bond nonuniformities in devices mounted under nonoptimal conditions. It is demonstrated for an unbiased 600- mu m-wide by 1000- mu m-long amplifier device that a phase uniformity across the stripe of better than lambda /25 can be obtained.<>
Keywords :
focusing; light interferometry; nonlinear optics; optical images; optical resolving power; semiconductor lasers; 1000 micron; 600 micron; Mach-Zehnder imaging interferometric; broad-area diode amplifiers; interferometric measurement; laser variables measurement; lateral phase profile; light interferometers; localized phase variations; near field; nonoptimal conditions; phase resolution; quadratic thermally induced phase distortion; semiconductor optical amplifiers; thermal bond nonuniformities; thermal lens focal length; thermal lensing; Distortion measurement; Image resolution; Lenses; Optical imaging; Optical interferometry; Phase distortion; Phase measurement; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Temperature; Thermal lensing;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
