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Optics Letters

Versatile VCSEL source of thermal and super-thermal light

Viacheslav N. Chizhevsky, Nikita V. Belko, Gregory Ya. Slepyan, Amir Boag, Dmitri S. Mogilevtsev

Published Oct 18, 2024• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have built highly controllable sources of thermal and super-thermal states on the basis of a single-mode (SM) and a multi-mode (MM) vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with noised driving current operating above the threshold. Varying the average driving current and the amplitude and bandwidth of noise, one can robustly obtain light with the temporal second-order intensity correlation function reaching 2.5 and correlation times from 1 µs to 10 ns. For the SM VCSEL, generated thermal lights retain its single-mode quality negating a need for a spectral filtering. For the MM VCSEL, one can still find a near-threshold regime when the generated thermal radiation is close to a single-mode one.

DOI
10.1364/ol.542175

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We have built highly controllable sources of thermal and super-thermal states on the basis of a single-mode (SM) and a multi-mode (MM) vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with noised driving current operating above the threshold. Varying the average driving current and the amplitude and bandwidth of noise, one can robustly obtain light with the temporal second-order intensity correlation function reaching 2.5 and correlation times from 1 µs to 10 ns. For the SM VCSEL, generated thermal lights retain its single-mode quality negating a need for a spectral filtering. For the MM VCSEL, one can still find a near-threshold regime when the generated thermal radiation is close to a single-mode one.
We present comprehensive investigations on the polarization resolved quantum noise behavior of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) with various cavity designs. These experiments are accompanied by detailed studies using a semiclassical approach, first, to calculate and model theoretically the amplitude fluctuations and correlations of a two orthogonal polarization-mode semiconductor laser as realized by a VCSEL, and second, to explore theoretically the squeezing potential of VCSELs. First, we find that the possible amount of squeezing with VCSELs should be superior as compared to edge emitting lasers for ideal single mode operation and under comparable pumping conditions. Second, we demonstrate that there exists the possibility of squeezing also in the two-mode regime besides sub-shot noise emission in the well known ideal single-mode operation regime configuring the recently published first experimental demonstration of the generation of amplitude squeezed light with VCSELs. Third, we demonstrate for the first time the generation of amplitude squeezed light by a lateral and polarization single mode VCSEL with the achievement of a maximum squeezing of 0.9 dB. Finally the future trends, the applications and the limitations of these non-classical states of light with respect to metrology applications are discussed.
We present theoretical and experimental results on the quantum noise performances of vertical-cavity-surface-emitting-lasers (VCSELs). Using a semiclassical laser noise approach, we demonstrate that the ratio M=S‾/P‾M=\overline{S}/\overline{P}M=S/P of the powers in the two polarization modes of the laser is one of the essential parameters governing the VCSELs quantum noise behavior. The generation of amplitude squeezed states of light is only possible for two well-selected cases which are the ideal two-polarization-mode laser $(M\ensuremath{\approx}1)$ and the ideal single-polarization-mode laser $(M\ensuremath{\approx}0),$ respectively. Furthermore, we show that gain suppression, as well as other relevant semiconductor parameters, have also to be taken into account to model realistically the VCSEL's quantum noise. These theoretical investigations are very well supported by our experimental results. We demonstrate experimentally that indeed there exists a direct link between the parameter M and the shot noise normalized amplitude noise. In a two-polarization-mode laser as, e.g., represented by a large diameter air-post VCSEL, squeezed states could not be generated because of insufficiently low values of M even though a strong anticorrelation between the two modes exists. With a single-polarization-mode laser, as realized with small diameter oxide confined VCSELs, we have been able to demonstrate the generation of single-mode squeezed light with a VCSEL. A squeezing level of 0.9 dB has been measured, which with the detection efficiency corrected, results in 1.3 dB at the VCSEL upper facet.
The spectroscopic technique of coherent population trapping (CPT) enables an all-optical interrogation of the groundstate hyperfine splitting of cesium (or rubidium), compared to the optical-microwave double resonance technique conventionally employed in atomic frequency standards. All-optical interrogation enables the reduction of the size and power consumption of an atomic clock by two orders of magnitude, and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are preferred optical sources due to their low power consumption and circular output beam. Several research teams are currently using VCSELs for DARPA's chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) program with the goal of producing an atomic clock having a volume < 1 cm^3, a power consumption < 30 mW, and an instability (Allan deviation) < 1x10^-11 during a 1-hour averaging interval. This paper describes the VCSEL requirements for CPT-based atomic clocks, which include single mode operation, single polarization operation, modulation bandwidth > 4 GHz, low power consumption (for the CSAC), narrow linewidth, and low relative intensity noise (RIN). A significant manufacturing challenge is to reproducibly obtain the required wavelength at the specified VCSEL operating temperature and drive current. Data are presented that show the advantage of operating at the D1 (rather than D2) resonance of the alkali atoms. Measurements of VCSEL linewidth will be discussed in particular, since atomic clock performance is especially sensitive to this parameter.