Band 14, Heft 2

The work describes multiband photon detectors based on semiconductor micro-and nano-structures. The devices considered include quantum dot, homojunction, and heterojunction structures. In the quantum dot structures, transitions are from one state to another, while free carrier absorption and internal photoemission play the dominant role in homo or heterojunction detectors. Quantum dots-in-a-well (DWELL) detectors can tailor the response wavelength by varying the size of the well. A tunnelling quantum dot infrared photodetector (T-QDIP) could operate at room temperature by blocking the dark current except in the case of resonance. Photoexcited carriers are selectively collected from InGaAs quantum dots by resonant tunnelling, while the dark current is blocked by AlGaAs/InGaAs tunnelling barriers placed in the structure. A two-colour infrared detector with photoresponse peaks at ∼6 and ∼17 μm at room temperature will be discussed. A homojunction or heterojunction interfacial workfunction internal photoemission (HIWIP or HEIWIP) infrared detector, formed by a doped emitter layer, and an intrinsic layer acting as the barrier followed by another highly doped contact layer, can detect near infrared (NIR) photons due to interband transitions and mid/far infrared (MIR/FIR) radiation due to intraband transitions. The threshold wavelength of the interband response depends on the band gap of the barrier material, and the MIR/FIR response due to intraband transitions can be tailored by adjusting the band offset between the emitter and the barrier. GaAs/AlGaAs will provide NIR and MIR/FIR dual band response, and with GaN/AlGaN structures the detection capability can be extended into the ultraviolet region. These detectors are useful in numerous applications such as environmental monitoring, medical diagnosis, battlefield-imaging, space astronomy applications, mine detection, and remote-sensing.

This paper overviews the electro-optical and thermal performances of different types of infrared detectors manufactured by Sofradir. The detector’s fabrication processes and detector’s performance are shortly described. New staring arrays are more compact and offer system solutions required by infrared market. Special attention is directed to some reliability advantages of new dewar design. Finally, the development trends for highest resolution infrared detector are discussed.

In the paper, the simple method of laser chirp parameters estimation is presented. It is based on measuring time-domain distortions of chirped signal transmitted through dispersive fiber and finding laser chirp parameters by matching measured distortions to calculated ones. Experiments undertaken with 1.55 μm telecommunication grade distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and standard single-mode fiber are described, together with some practical remarks on measurement setup and main conclusions.

A self-mixing interferometer is proposed to measure nanometre-scale optical path length changes in the interferometer’s external cavity. As light source, the developed technique uses a blue emitting GaN laser diode. An external reflector, a silicon mirror, driven by a piezo nanopositioner is used to produce an interference signal which is detected with the monitor photodiode of the laser diode. Changing the optical path length of the external cavity introduces a phase difference to the interference signal. This phase difference is detected using a signal processing algorithm based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient and cubic spline interpolation techniques. The results show that the average deviation between the measured and actual displacements of the silicon mirror is 3.1 nm in the 0–110 nm displacement range. Moreover, the measured displacements follow linearly the actual displacement of the silicon mirror. Finally, the paper considers the effects produced by the temperature and current stability of the laser diode as well as dispersion effects in the external cavity of the interferometer. These reduce the sensor’s measurement accuracy especially in long-term measurements.

The efficient cw mode locking (cw-ML) regime was demonstrated in Nd:YVO4 laser by means of saturable absorber mirror (SAM). The 0.3-at.% Nd3+ doped 10-mm-long YVO4 crystal end pumped by 20-W diode module with a beam shaper was applied as a gain medium located in the close vicinity to the rear flat mirror of the first arm of Z-type resonator of 316 cm total length with two curved mirrors of 100-cm curvature radii. The SAM of 2%-saturable absorptance and saturation fluence of 50 μJ/cm2 was mounted at the opposite end of a resonator. The developed “dynamically stable” cavity design mitigates detrimental role of thermal aberration in gain medium, enforcing clean perfect mode locking even for the highest pump densities. The cw-ML pulses with 47.5 MHz repetition rate and pulse durations in the range of 15–20 ps were observed for a wide range of pump powers and output coupler losses. In the best case, for 32% of output coupler transmission, up to 6.2 W of average power with near 35% slope efficiency was achieved. The thresholds for Q-switched ML, cw-ML regimes were 2.67 W and 6.13 W of pump power, respectively. For the maximum pump power of 20 W we obtained 133 nJ of pulse energy with 16-ps pulse duration, resulting in a peak power higher than 8 kW. The threshold energy density at SAM giving the QML regime was estimated to be about 30 μJ/cm2, threshold of cw-ML regime was 220 μJ/cm2.

The possibilities of controlling the laser beam properties by a deformable mirror introduced into the laser optical cavity were studied theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were performed under conditions of an industrial high power transverse flow cw CO2 laser operating with a stable resonator of a folded configuration. A deformable bimorph mirror of a surface profile controlled by the voltage applied to the mirror electrodes is implemented to the laser system as a back cavity mirror or as a one of the inner folding mirrors. The near-and far-field characteristics of the laser beam versus the resonator configuration controlled by the changes of the focal length of the deformable mirror are discussed in the paper. The analysis reveals that the resonator with an inner deformable mirror is much more sensitive to the mirror curvature variations than the resonator in which the deformable mirror is used as a back cavity mirror. The presented results show that dynamic and controllable changes in the resonator properties result in the controlled modification and optimisation of the laser output power and spatial parameters of the laser radiation.

The layer of electrically conducting nematic liquid crystal doped with photosensitive dye and confined between polyimide coated electrodes can serve as a diffraction grating. In this paper, the deformations of the nematic director field induced in such a system by external voltage were studied numerically by means of one-dimensional model. The dissociation and recombination of ions were taken into account according to weak electrolyte model. The director orientation in the deformed layers and the distributions of the electric field and of the ion concentrations were calculated for blocking and for conducting electrodes. The effective extraordinary refractive index was also determined as a function of average ion concentration.

Ultraviolet (UV) semiconductor detectors are mainly made of materials with wide energy gap, i.e., of AlGaN, GaP, SiC, and diamond. The article describes methodology of measurements of characteristics of low-frequency noises of UV detectors and presents the developed measuring system. Basing on analysis of noise characteristics of detectors, an optimal working point of detector can be determined. The results of measurements of noise characteristics of UV detectors made of AlGaN are shown. The measurements have been carried out in wide range of temperatures for several values of a detector supply voltage.

The aim of the presented investigations was to develop a technique of producing Bragg’s grating couplers on planar waveguides. Waveguides are obtained by means of the sol-gel technology. The introduction of a light beam into the structure of the waveguide is in the case of planar or strip optical systems always an essential technical problem, requiring simple and reproducible solutions without extending excessively the waveguide structure. The paper presents a technology of producing grating couplers by impressing the pattern of the network while forming the planar waveguide structure applying the sol-gel method. Some remarks concerning the sol-gel technology are also presented. The results of investigations on grating couplers obtained in such a way have been discussed, too. Attention has been drawn to the possibility of using such structures in optoelectronic sensors, particularly gas sensors, including sensors of water vapour as well as toxic gases.