P. Y. Chiang

Millijoule-level Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber laser passively Q-switched with AlGaInAs quantum wells.

We report on a millijoule-level Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) laser passively Q-switched with AlGaInAs quantum wells (QWs). Three types of AlGaInAs devices with different QW numbers are fabricated to investigate the performance. With 50 groups of three AlGaInAs QWs as a saturable absorber (SA), the PCF laser generates an average power of 7.1 W with a pulse repetition rate of 6.5 kHz at a pump power of 16 W, corresponding to the pulse energy of 1.1 mJ. The maximum peak power is up to 110 kW.

Resolving the formation of modern Chladni figures

The resonant spectrum of a thin plate driven with a mechanical oscillator is precisely measured to distinguish modern Chladni figures (CFs) observed at the resonant frequencies from classical CFs observed at the non-resonant frequencies. Experimental results reveal that modern CFs generally display an important characteristic of avoided crossings of nodal lines, whereas the nodal lines of classical CFs form a regular grid. The formation of modern CFs and the resonant frequency spectrum are resolved with a theoretical model that characterizes the interaction between the plate and the driving source into the inhomogeneous Kirchhoff-Love equation. The derived formula for determining resonant frequencies is shown to be exactly identical to the meromorphic function given in singular billiards that deals with the coupling strength on the transition between integrable and chaotic features. The good agreement between experimental results and theoretical predictions verifies the significant role of the strong-coupling effect in the formation of modern CFs. More importantly, it is confirmed that the apparatus for generating modern CFs can be developed to serve as an expedient system for exploring the nodal domains of chaotic wave functions as well as the physics of the strong coupling with a point scatterer.

Simultaneous self-mode-locking of TEM0,0 and TEM1,0 modes in a Nd:YVO4 laser: Application for measuring the thermal focal length

We demonstrate that the simultaneous self-mode-locking of TEM0,0 and TEM1,0 modes can be achieved in a standard end-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser. With this simultaneous self-mode-locking, the transverse beat frequency can be accurately measured as a function of the absorbed power. We employ the measured beat frequency and the cavity theory to precisely determine the effective focal length of the thermal lens in the gain medium.

Extracting photon periodic orbits from spontaneous emission spectra in laterally confined vertically emitted cavities.

We report our observation of the signature of photon periodic orbits in the spontaneous emission spectra of large-aperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The high-resolution measurement clearly demonstrates that over a thousand cavity modes with a narrow linewidth can be perfectly exhibited in the spontaneous emission spectrum just below the lasing threshold. The Fourier-transformed spectrum is analyzed to confirm that the spontaneous emission spectra of large-aperture VCSELs can be exploited to analogously investigate the energy spectra of the 2D quantum billiards.

Manifesting the evolution of eigenstates from quantum billiards to singular billiards in the strongly coupled limit with a truncated basis by using RLC networks.

The coupling interaction between the driving source and the RLC network is explored and characterized as the effective impedance. The mathematical form of the derived effective impedance is verified to be identical to the meromorphic function of the singular billiards with a truncated basis. By using the derived impedance function, the resonant modes of the RLC network can be divided into the open-circuit and short-circuit states to manifest the evolution of eigenvalues and eigenstates from closed quantum billiards to the singular billiards with a truncated basis in the strongly coupled limit. The substantial differences of the wave patterns between the uncoupled and strongly coupled eigenmodes in the two-dimensional wave systems can be clearly revealed with the RLC network. Finally, the short-circuit resonant states are exploited to confirm that the experimental Chladni nodal-line patterns in the vibrating plate are the resonant modes subject to the strong coupling between the oscillation system and the driving source.

The Influences of Boundary Shapes on Polarization Characteristics and Lasing Modes in Broad-Area Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers With Cryogenic Detuning: Regular Versus Chaotic Cavities

The broad-area rectangular-shaped and stadium-shaped VCSELs with nearly the same aspect ratio are designed to explore the influence of lateral boundary shapes on polarization states and lasing spectra with large detuning by cryogenic cooling. For the rectangular-shaped VCSEL, the lasing modes usually exhibit linearly polarized state and their far-field emissions mainly concentrate on four diagonal directions. On the other hand, the lasing modes of the stadium-shaped VCSEL generally display two orthogonally polarized states and their far-field emissions extensively spread on azimuthal directions. More intriguingly, the lasing spectra of the two devices clearly manifest the features of the energy-level distribution in regular and chaotic quantum billiards, respectively.

Non-paraxial contributions to the far-field pattern of surface-emitting lasers: a manifestation of the momentum-space wavefunctions of quantum billiards

We investigated experimentally non-paraxial contributions to the high-order far-field pattern of large-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers in order to explore by analogy the momentum-space wave distributions of quantum billiards. Our results reveal that non-paraxial contributions significantly influence the morphology of the high-order far-field pattern. A fast reliable method is developed for transforming the experimental far-field patterns to the correct Fourier transform of the corresponding near-field lasing modes. In this way we visualize the momentum-space (p–q) wavefunctions of quantum billiards.

Multi-millijoule, high-repetition-rate Q-switched Nd-doped vanadate laser with an AlGaInAs quantum-well saturable absorber

We develop an AlGaInAs periodic quantum-well (QW) device with a large modulation strength to severs as a saturable absorber in a QCW diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser. The saturation transmission of the AlGaInAs QW saturable absorber was measured with a nanosecond 1064-nm Q-switched laser as the excitation source. Measured result indicates that AlGaInAs QW device has a much larger absorption cross section than that of Cr4+:YAG crystal to be an appropriate absorber for passively Q-switching Nd:YVO4 lasers. Stable Q-switched pulses with a pulse energy of 3.5 mJ and a peak power of >1 MW were generated at a pump energy of 34 mJ. The fluctuation of the output pulse energy at a repetition rate of 200 Hz was found to be less than ±2%.