Introduction to the issue on semiconductor lasers (original) (raw)
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Short history of laser development
2010
Half a century has passed since Theodore Maiman's small ruby rod crossed the threshold of laser emission. The breakthrough demonstration earned headlines, but in the early years the laser was called "a solution looking for a problem," and there was a germ of truth in the joke. Years of development since then have vastly improved laser performance, and tremendously increased their variety, earning lasers important roles in scientific research, consumer products, telecommunications, engineering, medicine, materials working, and a host of other applications. This article reviews the highlights of those developments and puts them into context, showing how laser technology has evolved to meet application requirements.
The First Half-Century of Laser Development
Laser Technik Journal
How a solution that once was looking for a problem has become part of everyday life cure priority Maiman sent a short note to Nature [3] and Hughes conducted a press conference. Some initially doubted Maiman's results, but within weeks both TRG and Bell replicated his ruby laser, the acid test of science. Maiman's engineering skill had made the ruby laser easy to replicate; the flashlamps were standard photographic products, and ruby crystals were easy to obtain. Other labs soon made their own ruby lasers and tested them, measuring pulse power in "gillettes"-the number of razor blades the pulse could penetrate. Small companies like Trion Instruments in Ann Arbor, Michigan popped up to make ruby lasers for those who didn't want to build their own. The first continuous-beam laser soon followed. Ali Javan, William Bennett, and Donald Herriott produced a 1.15-micrometer near-infrared beam from a helium-neon laser at Bell Labs at the end of 1960 [4], more than two years after Javan had started the project. Alan White and Dane Rigden of Bell built on that work to make the first visible gas laser, helium-neon emitting on the widely used 632.8-nanometer red line, in 1962 [5], shown in Figure 2.
Lessons learned: the laser from theory to practice
An Optical Believe It or Not: Key Lessons Learned
In September 1959, Theodore Maiman attended the first International Quantum Electronics Conference to present a paper describing an exceptionally compact microwave-emitting ruby maser he had developed at the Hughes Research Laboratories. On May 16, 1960 he succeeded in demonstrating the first working laser, also using ruby, a historic breakthrough that stunned others trying to develop a working laser. Maiman's success, described in my book Beam: The Race to Make the Laser (Oxford, 2005) teaches some important lessons in taking on challenging optical tasks.
Russian Physics Journal
This paper presents the designs and radiation characteristics for lasers operating by se!f-limited transitions of nitrogen ()~-= 337.1 nm) and neon ()~ = 614.3 tim) and pumped by a pulsed longitudinal discharge, and for atmospheric CO2 lasers (2~ = 10.6 I.tm) pumped by a transverse electron-beam-initiated discharge or by a transverse discharge with uv preionization. These lasers were put into operation at IHCE in 1969 (the nitrogen attd neon lasers), in 1971 (the CO2 laser pumped by an electron-beam-initiated discharge), attd in 1972 (the CO2 laser pumped b v a transverse discharge with uv preionization).
Laser Technology 2012: Progress in Lasers
Laser Technology X was the tenth symposium in a periodical series that deals with advances in the state-of-the-art laser technology in Poland. Historically, this series of symposia has evolved since 1984 due to the activity of the Committee of Electronics and Telecommunication of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the support of relevant universities. The first symposium on laser technology was organized and hosted by the Nicolaus Copernicus University at Toruń and co-organized by Warsaw University of Technology, the Military University of Technology, and the Industrial Center of Optics in Warsaw. Three volumes of proceedings were published beginning in June, 1984. Laser Technology II was organized in 1987 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. The host of the symposium was the Institute of Industrial Automation of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of 140 contributed papers and another volume of 14 invited papers) and two in English (a volume of abstracts and SPIE Proceedings volume 859). Laser Technology III was organized in 1990 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. It was hosted by the Institute of Industrial Automation of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided materials for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of 140 contributed papers and another of invited papers) and two in English (a volume of abstracts and SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1391). Laser Technology IV was organized in 1993 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of technology. The host of the symposium was the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provides material for five volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another of invited papers) and three in English (a volume of abstracts and SPIE Proceedings volumes 2202 and 2003). Laser Technology V was organized in 1996 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. The host of the symposium was the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided material for five volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another one of invited papers) and three in English (SPIE Proceedings volumes 3186, 3187, and 3188). Laser Technology VI was organized in 1999 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers, under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee of Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another one of invited papers) and two in English (SPIE Proceedings volumes 4237 and 4238). Laser Technology VII was organized in 2002 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers and SPIE Poland Chapter, under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee of Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another one of invited papers) and two in English (SPIE Proceedings volumes 5229 and 5230). Laser Technology VIII was organized in 2006 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers and SPIE Poland Chapter, under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee of Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium was hosted by Institute of Electronics, Telecommunications and Computer Science of Technical University of Szczecin and was held in Świnoujście in September. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another one of invited papers) and two in English (SPIE Proceedings volumes 6598 and 6599). Laser Technology IX was organized in 2009 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers and by the Photonics Society of Poland (which converted from SPIE Poland Chapter), under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee of Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium was hosted by Institute of Electronics, Telecommunications and Computer Science of Technical University of Szczecin and was held in Świnoujście in September. The symposium provided material for a volume of abstracts. This time no SPIE Proceedings volume was published. The Jubilee Laser Technology X was organized in 2012 by West Pomeranian University of Technology (which converted from Szczecin University of Technology and Sczecin University of Natural Sciences), Warsaw University of Technology and Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers and Photonics Society of Poland, under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee of Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium was hosted by Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Chair of Photonics of Technical University of Szczecin and was held in Świnoujście on 24–28 September. Approximately 120 participants attended this symposium. Professor Wiesław L. Woliński, Chairman of the Polish Committee for Optoelectronics, and Symposium Scientific Committee presented the welcome address and opened the meeting. The opening lectures were given by Professor Zygmunt Mierczyk of Military University of Technology on “Lasers in the dual application technologies,” and Professor Krzysztof Abramski of Wrocław University of Technology on “Optical fiber frequency combs.” The topics of Laser Technology X were as follows: (1) Laser materials, components and assemblies, (2) gas lasers, solid-state lasers, semiconductor lasers, and other kinds of lasers, (3) generation, amplification, stabilization, synchronization, multiplication of frequencies, shaping of space and time characteristics of laser radiation, (4) detection and registration of laser beam parameters, (5) circuits, devices, apparatus and systems working with lasers, and (6) applications of lasers in industry, medicine and biology, environment protection, military technology and in research. The symposium provided material for three volumes of proceedings. One of them was published in Polish (a volume of abstracts of all symposium presentations) and two in English (SPIE Proceedings). The editors of these volumes present the full texts of 60 chosen and reviewed papers by authors affiliated primarily with university based laboratories. The symposium chairs and editors would like to thank personally the authors and conference contributors who made these books possible. Special cordial thanks are also due to SPIE for supporting the symposium by undertaking the publication of two proceedings volumes. The Symposium Committee announces with pleasure that the next meeting on Laser Technology is scheduled to be held in Świnoujście in 2015.
Laser Technology 2006: Progress in Lasers
Laser Technology VIII was the eighth symposium in a periodical series that deals with advances in the state-of-the-art of laser technology in Poland. Historically, this series of symposia has evolved since 1984 due to the activity of the Committee on Electronics and Telecommunication of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the support of relevant universities. The first symposium on laser technology was organized and hosted by the Nicolaus Copernicus University at Toruń and co-organized by Warsaw University of Technology, Military University of Technology, and Industrial Center of Optics in Warsaw. Three volumes of proceedings were published beginning in June, 1984. Laser Technology II was organized in 1987 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. The host of the symposium was the Institute of Industrial Automation Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of 140 contributed papers and volume of 14 invited papers,) and two in English (a volume of abstracts and SPIE Proceedings Vol. 859). Laser Technology III was organized in 1990 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. It was hosted by the Institute of Industrial Automation of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided materials for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of 140 contributed papers and another of invited papers,) and two in English (a volume of abstracts and SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1391). Laser Technology IV was organized in 1993 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. The host of the symposium was the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided material for five volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another of invited papers,) and three in English (a volume of abstracts and SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2202 and 2203). Laser Technology V was organized in 1996 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Military University of Technology. The host of the symposium was the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science of Szczecin University of Technology. The symposium provided material for five volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another of invited papers,) and three in English (SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3186, 3187, and 3188). Laser Technology VI was organized in1999 by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another of invited papers,) and two in English (SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4237 and 4238). Laser Technology VII was organized in 2002 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Military University of Technology, and by the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers and SPIE Poland Chapter under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Electronics and Telecommunication. The symposium provided material for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of contributed papers and another of invited papers,) and two in English (SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5229 and 5230). Laser Technology VIII was organized in 2006 also by Szczecin University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Military University of Technology, the Committee for Optoelectronics of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers, and SPIE Poland Chapter, under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Electronics and Telecommunication. This recent symposium was hosted by the Institute of Electronics, Telecommunications and Computer Science of Technical University of Szczecin and held in Świnoujście on 25–29 September 2006. Approximately 130 participants including a number of foreign guests attended this symposium. Professor Wiesław Woliński, Chairman of the Polish Committee for Optoelectronics and the Committee on Electronics and Telecommunication, presented the welcome address and opened the meeting. The opening lecture, “Single-frequency solid-state micro lasers,” was given by Arkadiusz Antończak, Jarosław Sator, and Krzysztof Abramski. The topics of Laser Technology VIII were as follows: (1) new active media, component and laser subassembly construction problems; (2) solid-state, semiconductor, gas, ion, and other laser types; (3) laser radiation: amplification, generation, stabilization, synchronization, frequency multiplying, and pulse shaping; (4) laser beams: collimation, focusing, polarization, filtration, modulation, and detection; (5) measurements of lasers and their radiation; (6) equipment cooperating with lasers; and (7) laser applications in material processing, medicine, and metrology. Included in these topics were 44 oral papers and 86 contributed papers. The symposium provided materials for four volumes of proceedings. Two of them were published in Polish (a volume of 36 oral papers and another of 71 contributed papers) and two SPIE Proceedings in English. The editors of these volumes present the full texts of 61 chosen and reviewed papers by authors affiliated primarily with university-based laboratories. The symposium chairs and editors would like to thank personally the authors and conference contributors who made these books possible. Special cordial thanks are also due to SPIE for supporting the symposium by undertaking the publication of two proceedings volumes. The Symposium Committee announces with pleasure that the next meeting on Laser Technology is scheduled to be held in Świnoujście in 2009. Wiesław L. Woliński Zdzisław Jankiewicz Ryszard S. Romaniuk
Half a century of laser weapons
Optics and Photonics News, 2009
he laser concept emerged at an ideal time to stimulate the emission of military research contracts. In early 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower established the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to handle the high-risk, high-payoff projects that cautious military bureaucrats had been avoiding. That May, ARPA director Roy Johnson told Congress that his agency's work "might lead to a death ray. That would be the weapon of tomorrow," a step beyond the hydrogen bomb, able to destroy nuclear-armed ballistic missiles before they reached their targets. Thus it was no wonder that ARPA welcomed Gordon Gould and Lawrence Goldmuntz with open arms when they came bearing a proposal to build a laser in early 1959. As Gould told the author many years later, "Ray guns and so on were part of science fiction, but somebody actually proposing to build this thing? And he has theoretical grounds for believing it's going to work? Wow! That set them off, and, those colonels, they were just too eager to believe." (See Fig. 1.) Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow were the first to propose the laser publicly, but their vision was a modest-power oscillator. Gould had realized that the amplification of stimulated emission in an oscillator might allow a laser to generate high power and concentrate light to a high intensity. His pitch to ARPA was laden with bold ideas. He said a laser pulse could mark military targets and measure their ranges for other weapons. He predicted that laser beams could be focused to be 10,000 times brighter than the Sun, enough to trigger chemical reactions. Ultimately, he suggested, lasers might be powerful enough to destroy targets or ignite nuclear fusion. Paul Adams, who handled ARPA's optics projects, loved the plan, and a review panel thought prospects for laser communications, target designation, and range finding were good enough to justify the 300,000grantrequested.Adamswassoenthusiasticthathepushedthrougha300,000 grant requested. Adams was so enthusiastic that he pushed through a 300,000grantrequested.Adamswassoenthusiasticthathepushedthrougha999,000 contract for a bigger program at TRG Inc., the company Goldmuntz headed. Then the Pentagon tossed a monkey wrench into the works by classifying the laser project and denying Gould a security clearance because of his youthful dalliance with communism. He could not work on the project he had created. The press also focused on the idea of laser weapons. When Ted Maiman announced he had made the first laser, reporters asked if the laser was a "death ray." After trying to duck the question, he finally admitted he could not rule out the possibility. When he returned to California, he found the Los Angeles Herald carrying a headline in two-inch red type: "L.A. Man Discovers Science Fiction Death Ray." After Maiman's success, ARPA expanded its program to study laser mechanisms, materials, and beam interactions with targets. The Air Force gave Maiman a contract to develop ruby lasers, and other military labs started their own laser projects. The armed services focused on near-term applications in missile guidance and communications; ARPA focused on high-energy laser weapons. Although many physicists were skeptical, they also hesitated to oppose Pentagon plans. After weapon scientists said nuclear re-entry vehicles were so sensitive to thermal shock that laser heating might shatter them, ARPA's laser-weapon budget was boosted to $5 million. Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay jumped on the laser bandwagon, saying on 28 March 1962 that "beam directed energy weapons would be able to transmit energy across space with the
Trend of laser research developments in global level
Optics & Laser Technology, 2006
An up-to-date progress of the international laser research and development is given in this article. The number of scientific publications and filed patents are considered as a figure of merit and based on these numbers the growth pace and important aspects are investigated. We have used the Science Finder Scholar search engine, which indexes more than 4000 journals, in different languages, and represents most significant published materials in laser science and engineering. The growth of the laser and related fields are described in terms of resulting scientific publications for the period of 1990-2003. The share of top nations in scientific publications, and in particular laser publications in terms of their gross domestic product (GDP) is presented. It is noted that the four countries including the USA, Japan, Germany and China have a laser publication contribution of 58.9% while the rest of the world including 189 countries contribute 41.1%. However, for the case of patent, which is a more important factor, these four countries hold a share of 90.1% while the remaining nations have a small share of 9.9%. The USA heads all the nations in the number of scientific publications, citations, and laser publications, however, in terms of accepted laser patents Japan shows a big lead. Scientific scopes of the laser systems are presented and some requirements to be met in each field are described. The key points in this field of research, which might be helpful in the future development of the laser technology are discussed.