Home: Products > Laser Diodes > AR Coated Lasers
Anti-Reflection Coated Laser Diodes
The Original Anti-Reflection Coating for
Diode Lasers
R<4E-5 (spec.),
R<5E-5 (typ.)
US Patent 6,297,066 |
US Patent 6,869,483
Description:
Diode lasers are cost effective opto-electronic devices which cover
a wide variety of applications. For most applications in the field of measuring
and sensing, there is an improvement of the spectral properties needed.
Technically, this is realized by using external cavities. For a proper coupling
of the external cavity to the diode laser, an anti-reflection coating of the
front facet of the diode laser is required. Dr. Joachim Sacher was one of the
first scientists who recognized this potential. The first successful
antireflection coatings were realized as early as 1987 at Marburg
University.
Benefit of AR-coated diode lasers,
Laser Performance:
Our anti-reflection coated diode lasers give the
laser system the performance of a turnkey system. These is no longer
the need for a long term search of the current and temperature values of
the operating point. Our customers benefit from our experience of more
than 15000 installed antireflection coated diode lasers in experimental and
industrial laser systems. Make sure to include the Original Anti-Reflection
Coating within your laser system. 
Benefit of AR-coated diode lasers,
Wavelength Tuning:
Using our anti-reflection coated diode lasers
within an external cavity laser system increases the total tuning range of diode
lasers up to a factor of 2 in comparison with standard diode lasers. Spectral
regimes beside standard wavelengths are easy accessible.
Benefit of AR-coated diode lasers,
Large Mode-hop free Tuning Range:
Employing standard diode lasers
within an external cavity laser system causes a coupled cavity system. This
results in the coherence collapse (Sacher et al., Phys. Rev. A45, 1893 (1992))
and only very small tuning ranges of a few GHz can be reached. The performance of
our anti-reflection coated diode lasers enables our laser systems for large
mode-hop free spectral tuning Our external cavity Littman laser system is
especially designed for achieving high mode-hop free tuning range.
Specifications:
R<=5E-4, typical values R<=5E-5. For our standard coatings,
we specify the minimum of the reflectivity to be below 5E-4. Typical values are
R<=5E-5. These excellent values are a result of more than 10 years of
experience in the manufacturing of anti-reflections coatings (US Patent
6,297,066).
Measuring the Reflectivity of diode
lasers:
A direct measurement of the reflectivity of diode lasers is
barely possible due to the small size of the laser chip. Therefore, we use an
indirect method of determining the reflectivity by the method of Kaminov et al.,
IEEE J. Quantum Electron., QE-19, 493 (1983). An example of applying this method
to the newly released GaN laser diodes is given by Hildebrandt et
al., published in Applied Optics, April 2003.
Effect of AR-coatings on diode lasers:
Anti-reflection coating causes a significant change of the physical
properties of diode lasers. The most obvious effect is the change of threshold
current and of spectral properties.
Quality Management:
Each
anti-reflection coated diode laser will be delivered with an individual
datasheet. This datasheet provides information on the change of the PI-curve as
well as on the spectral performance of the device.
Lifetime Data:
We have
performed lifetime testing on a 25 unit batch of our anti-reflection coated
diode lasers employing the accelerated aging method. As a result, we have found
the mean time to failure (MTF) not to be affected by anti-reflection
coatings as long as the diodes are driven under reasonable conditions. Please
check the links for details.
Manufacturing
Capabilites:
Sacher Lasertechnik operates a full technology
line for the assembly and the antireflection
coating of diode lasers.
Laser Bar Coating:
Sacher
Lasertechnik has developed a unique method of performing anti-reflection
coatings for laser bars, c/f US Patent 6,297,066.
General Specification:
| Reflectivity |
R < 5E-4 (spec.), R < 5E-5
(typical) |
| Wavelength Range |
370nm ... 2000nm |
| Power Range |
2mW ... 5000mW, depending on laser
structure |
| Coarse Tuning
Range |
10nm ... 150nm, depending on the actual
wavelength |
| Type of Laser
Carrier |
C-Mount, G-Mount, Custom Types of Laser
Mounts |
Model Specific Specification:
Please check our link table for a complete set of specifications.
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