GIANT PULSE LASER OPERATION WITH SEMICONDUCTOR MIRRORS.
Abstract
Giant optical pulses have been produced in the operation of lasers in which one reflector is a polished optically flat semiconductor and the other is a partially reflecting multiple film dielectric mirror. Giant pulse operation is initiated when the laser light is sufficiently intense to produce an increase in semiconductor reflectivity by inducing a high carrier concentration. Results of giant pulse operation with ruby lasers using germanium, silicon, boron, GaAs, GaSb, InAs, and InSb and Nd3+ glass lasers using germanium, InAs and InSb are presented. These results are contrasted with operation of lasers using dielectric mirrors of comparable reflectivity. In all cases, the semiconductors were severely damaged after one or a few giant pulses. Much reduced semiconductor damage was observed when InAs and particularly InSb were used at oblique incidence. Giant pulse operation was observed with semiconductor mirrors (germanium, InAs and InSb) cooled to 100 K. The comparative performance of the semiconductor giant pulse lasers can be understood on the basis of a model in which the dominant loss mechanism is due to the recombination of electron-hole pairs. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0475689
Entities
People
- Milton Birnbaum
- Tom L. Stocker
Organizations
- The Aerospace Corporation