Laser diodes and light emitting diodes have a number of elements in common with respect to their theory of operation.

However the laser diode theory of operation incorporates more elements, taking in additional processes to provide the coherent light it produces. While there are many different forms of laser diode, the basis of the laser diode theory of operation is very similar - the basic precepts remain the same, although there are a number of minor differences in the way they are implemented..

Laser diode theory basics

There are three main processes in semiconductors that are associated with light:

Light absorption:

Absorption occurs when light enters a semiconductor and its energy is

transferred to the semiconductor to generate additional free electrons and holes. This effect is widely used and enables devices like to photo-detectors and solar cells to operate. Spontaneous emission: The second effect known as spontaneous emission occurs in LEDs. The light produced in this manner is what is termed incoherent. In other words the frequency and phase are random, although the light is situated in a given part of the spectrum. Stimulated emission: Stimulated emission is different. A light photon entering the semiconductor lattice will strike an electron and release energy in the form of another light photon. The way in which this occurs releases this new photon of identical wavelength and phase. In this way the light that is generated is said to be coherent.

The key to the laser diode operation occurs at the junction of the highly doped p and n type regions. In a normal p-n junction current flows across the p-n junction. This action can occur because the holes from the p-type region and the electrons from the n-type region combine. With an electromagnetic wave (in this instance light) in passing through the laser diode junction diode junction it is found that the photo-emission process occurs. Here the photons release further photons of light occurs when they strike electrons during the recombination of holes and electrons occurs. Naturally there is some absorption of the light, resulting in the generation of holes and electrons but there is an overall gain in level. The structure of the laser diode creates an optical cavity in which the light photons have multiple reflections. When the photons are generated only a small number are able to leave the cavity. In this way when one photon strikes an electron and enables another photon to be generated the process repeats itself and the photon density or light level starts to build up. It is in the design of better optical cavities that much of the current work on lasers is being undertaken. Ensuring the light is properly reflected is the key to the operation of the device.

Laser diode technology is now well established, with laser diodes providing a cost effective and reliable means of developing laser light. With laser diodes being lending themselves to use in many areas of electronics from CD, DVD and other forms of data storage through to telecommunications links, laser diode technology offers a very convenient means of developing coherent light.

Laser diode overview

Laser diodes are used in all areas of electronics from domestic equipment, through commercial applications to hash industrial environments. In all these applications laser diodes are able to provide a cost effective solution while being rugged and reliable and offering a high level of performance. Laser diode technology has a number of advantages:

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Power capability: Laser diodes are able to provide power levels from a few milliwatts right up to a few hundreds of watts. Efficiency: Laser diode efficiency levels can exceed 30%, making laser diodes a particularly efficient method of generating coherent light. Coherent light: The very nature of a laser is that it generates coherent light. This can be focussed to a diffraction limited spot for high density optical storage applications. Rugged construction: Laser diodes are completely solid state and do not require fragile glass elements or critical set-up procedures. Accordingly they are able to operate under harsh conditions. Compact: Laser diodes can be quite small allowing for laser diode technology to provide a very compact solution. Variety of wavelengths: Using the latest technology and a variety of materials, laser diode technology is able to generate light over a wide spectrum. The use of blue light having a short wavelength allows for tighter focussing of the image for higher density storage. Modulation: It is easy to modulate a laser diode, and this makes laser diode technology ideal for many high data rate communications applications. The modulation is achieved by directly modulating the drive current to the laser diode. This enables frequencies up to several GHz to be achieved for applications such as high-speed data communications.

Laser diode background

The name laser comes from the words Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Lasers operate because of a phenomenon called stimulated emission that was first postulated by Albert Einstein before 1920. Although a number of media including gases liquids and amorphous solids can be used for lasers the first ones were realised in the 1960s using rubies. A helium-neon gas laser followed this in 1961 but it was not until 1970 that semiconductor laser diodes were made to run at room temperature by Hayashi. This represented the final step in research work that had been undertaken by a number of people and organisations over the years. It had required an in depth study of the properties of gallium Arsenide, the material that is used as the basis for many laser diodes and much work on the properties of the diode structures.

Laser diode symbol

the laser diode symbol used for circuit diagrams is often the same one used for light emitting diodes. This laser diode circuit symbol uses the basic semiconductor diode symbol with arrows indicating the generation and emanation of light.

Laser diode circuit symbol When used within a circuit, they are often denoted as being a laser diode to distinguish them from other forms of light emitting diode.

Laser diode basics

There are two maintypes of semiconductor laser diodes. They operate in quite different ways, although many of the concepts used within them are very similar.

Injection Laser Diode:

The Injection laser diode, ILD, has many factors in common with

light emitting diodes. They are manufactured using very similar processes. The main difference is that laser diodes are manufactured having a long narrow channel with reflective ends. This acts as a waveguide for the light. In operation, current flows through the PN junction and light is generated using the same process that generates light in a light emitting diode. However the light is confined within the waveguide formed in the diode itself. Here the light is reflected and then amplified before exiting though one end of the laser diode.

Optically Pumped Semiconductor Laser: Optically pumped semiconductor laser, OPSL uses a III-V semiconductor chip as its basis. This acts as an optical gain medium, and another laser which may be an ILD is used as the pump source. The OPSL approach offers several advantages, particularly in wavelength selection and lack of interference from internal electrode structures.

A more complete explanation of laser diode theory and operation can be found in another page within this tutorial.

Summary
The laser diode is now well established, and used in a wide variety of applications. Although not nearly as cheap as many other forms of diode, laser diodes are still produced in vast quantities and at a relatively low cost, as demonstrated by the fact that laser diodes are even used in the light pencils used for illustrating overhead projector slide presentations. At the other end of the market, laser diodes for use in optical communications systems have been shown with data rates in excess of 20

Gbits per second. With performance levels in this region, they are being used increasingly in many communications applications.

Transmitters

A GBIC module, is essentially an optical and electrical transceiver.

The most commonly-used optical transmitters are semiconductor devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes. The difference between LEDs and laser diodes is that LEDs produce incoherent light, while laser diodes produce coherent light. For use in optical communications, semiconductor optical transmitters must be designed to be compact, efficient, and reliable, while operating in an optimal wavelength range, and directly modulated at high frequencies. In its simplest form, an LED is a forward-biased p-n junction, emitting light through spontaneous emission, a phenomenon referred to as electroluminescence. The emitted light is incoherent with a relatively wide spectral width of 30-60 nm. LED light transmission is also inefficient, with only about 1 % of input power, or about 100 microwatts, eventually converted into launched power which has been coupled into the optical fiber. However, due to their relatively simple design, LEDs are very useful for low-cost applications. Communications LEDs are most commonly made from gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) or gallium arsenide (GaAs). Because GaAsP LEDs operate at a longer wavelength than GaAs LEDs (1.3 micrometers vs. 0.81-0.87 micrometers), their output spectrum is wider by a factor of about 1.7. The large spectrum width of LEDs causes higher fiber dispersion, considerably limiting their bit rate-distance product (a common measure of usefulness). LEDs are suitable primarily for local-areanetwork applications with bit rates of 10-100 Mbit/s and transmission distances of a few kilometers. LEDs have also been developed that use several quantum wells to emit light at different wavelengths over a broad spectrum, and are currently in use for local-area WDM networks.

Today, LEDs have been largely superseded by VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) devices, which offer improved speed, power and spectral properties, at a similar cost. Common VCSEL devices couple well to multi mode fiber. A semiconductor laser emits light through stimulated emission rather than spontaneous emission, which results in high output power (~100 mW) as well as other benefits related to the nature of coherent light. The output of a laser is relatively directional, allowing high coupling efficiency (~50 %) into single-mode fiber. The narrow spectral width also allows for high bit rates since it reduces the effect of chromatic dispersion. Furthermore, semiconductor lasers can be modulated directly at high frequencies because of short recombination time. Commonly used classes of semiconductor laser transmitters used in fiber optics include VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser), Fabry Perot and DFB (Distributed Feed Back). Laser diodes are often directly modulated, that is the light output is controlled by a current applied directly to the device. For very high data rates or very long distance links, a laser source may be operated continuous wave, and the light modulated by an external device such as an electro-absorption modulator or Mach-Zehnder interferometer. External modulation increases the achievable link distance by eliminating laser chirp, which broadens the linewidth of directly-modulated lasers, increasing the chromatic dispersion in the fiber. [edit]Receivers

Wavelength-division multiplexing
Main article: Wavelength-division multiplexing Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is the practice of multiplying the available capacity of an optical fiber by adding new channels, each channel on a new wavelength of light. This requires a wavelength division multiplexer in the transmitting equipment and a demultiplexer (essentially a spectrometer) in the receiving equipment. Arrayed waveguide gratings are commonly used for multiplexing and demultiplexing in WDM. Using WDM technology now commercially available, the bandwidth of a fiber can be divided into as many as 160 channels
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to support a combined bit rate into the range of terabits per second.