A laser diode, or LD also known as injection laser diode or ILD, is an electrically pumped semiconductor laser in which the active laser medium is formed by a p-n junction of a semiconductor diode similar to that found in a light-emitting diode.
The laser diode is the most common type of laser produced with a wide range of uses that include fiber optic communications, barcode readers, laser pointers, CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc reading and recording, laser printing, laser scanning and increasingly directional lighting sources.
History
In 1957, Japanese engineer Jun-ichi Nishizawa filed a patent for the first semiconductor laser.[1][2] It was an advancement of his earlier inventions, the PIN diode in 1950 and the solid-state maser in 1955.[2]
See also
- Collimating lens
- Laser safety – Explains the old Laser classification system using Roman numerals (I II III IV) and the revised system as specified by the IEC 60825-1 standard.
- List of laser articles
- Superluminescent diode
References
- ↑ The Third Industrial Revolution Occurred in Sendai, Soh-VEHE International Patent Office, Japan Patent Attorneys Association
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jun-ichi Nishizawa: Engineer, Sophia University Special Professor (interview), Japan Quality Review, 2011
Further reading
- B. Van Zeghbroeck's Principles of Semiconductor Devices( for direct and indirect band gaps)
- Saleh, Bahaa E. A. and Teich, Malvin Carl (1991). Fundamentals of Photonics. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-83965-5. ( For Stimulated Emission )
- Koyama et al., Fumio (1988), "Room temperature cw operation of GaAs vertical cavity surface emitting laser", Trans. IEICE, E71(11): 1089–1090( for VCSELS)
- Iga, Kenichi (2000), "Surface-emitting laser—Its birth and generation of new optoelectronics field", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 6(6): 1201–1215(for VECSELS)
- Duarte, F. J. (2016), "Broadly tunable dispersive external-cavity semiconductor lasers", in Tunable Laser Applications. New York: CRC Press. ISBN 9781482261066. pp. 203–241 (For external cavity diode lasers).
External links
- Overview of available single mode diode lasers
- Video showing laser bar assembly process
- Sam's Laser FAQ by Samuel M. Goldwasser
- Driving Diode Lasers (EuroPhotonics – 08/2004)
- Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics Edge-emitting lasers
- Application and technical notes explaining current and temperature control of laser diodes
- Application explaining how to design and test laser driver [1]