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Brandon's Project Page |
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Intern:Brandon Barnes
Mentor:Jon Geske
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. John Bowers
Department: Electrical & Computer Engineering |
OPTICALLY PUMPED VCSELS
In recent time the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) has been a vigorous area of semiconductor laser research. VCSELs have proven to have manufacturing, packaging, and performance advantages over their predecessor, the edge-emitting laser. In recent years VCSELs operating at or near 1.3ƒÝm and 1.55ƒÝm have been the subject of intense research. One popular method of testing these long-wavelength VCSELs is to optically pump the VCSEL with another laser to create the stimulated emission. Despite the processing and testing benefits associated with optical pumping, problems with this testing technique exist. The time required to locate and align the lasers for testing is far too great. It is also difficult to maintain the alignment due to temperature drift in the stage position. Since the optimum alignment between the pump laser beam and the VCSEL device is required for optimum performance, the user has been required to manually align the device by monitoring the VCSEL¡¦s output. This very time consuming and tedious process has proven to substantially hinder the progress of the VCSEL research. My project involved programming a new motorized X-Y-Z stage and designing a building a new thermally controlled testing platform. This new setup will perform advanced search algorithms to locate and focus in on a device with a touch of a button. The setup will also allow the user to save device locations so that they can be returned to later. The new thermal design will also limit the problems associated with stage movement by the expanding and contracting of stage components. With the setup near completion, it is proving to be very promising in reducing the time required to test an optically pumped VCSEL.
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