Carrier Recombination in Nitride-Based Light-Emitting Devices: Multiphonon Processes, Excited Defects, and Disordered Heterointerfaces.

We study recombination processes in nitride LEDs emitting from 270 to 540 nm with EQE ranging from 4% to 70%. We found a significant correlation between the LEDs' electro-optical properties and the degree of nanomaterial disorder (DND) in quantum wells (QWs) and heterointerfaces. DND depends on the nanoarrangement of domain structure, random alloy fluctuations, and the presence of local regions with disrupted alloy stoichiometry.

Active Region Overheating in Pulsed Quantum Cascade Lasers: Effects of Nonequilibrium Heat Dissipation on Laser Performance.

Mid IR Quantum cascade lasers are of high interest for the scientific community due to their unique applications. However, the QCL designs require careful engineering to overcome some crucial disadvantages. One of them is active region (ARn) overheating, which significantly affects laser characteristics, even in the pulsed mode.

High-Power Quantum Cascade Lasers Emitting at 8 μm: Technology and Analysis.

In this work, we demonstrate the features of a two-stage epitaxial growth technique and show the results of power and efficiency measurements for three different designs of quantum cascade lasers with a record-high peak power in the 8 μm spectral region. The time-resolved QCL spectral study proves that InP-based upper cladding paired with an InP contact layer provides better heat dissipation and allows one to reach better power characteristics in comparison with InGaAs-based contact, even with short pulse pumping.

Partially coherent conical refraction promises new counter-intuitive phenomena.

In this paper, we extend the paraxial conical refraction model to the case of the partially coherent light using the unified optical coherence theory. We demonstrate the decomposition of conical refraction correlation functions into well-known conical refraction coherent modes for a Gaussian Schell-model source. Assuming randomness of the electrical field phase of the input beam, we reformulated and significantly simplified the rigorous conical refraction theory.

Dissipative Phase Transition in Systems with Two-Photon Drive and Nonlinear Dissipation near the Critical Point.

In this paper, we examine dissipative phase transition (DPT) near the critical point for a system with two-photon driving and nonlinear dissipations. The proposed mean-field theory, which explicitly takes into account quantum fluctuations, allowed us to describe properly the evolutionary dynamics of the system and to demonstrate new effects in its steady-state. We show that the presence of quantum fluctuations leads to a power-law dependence of the anomalous average at the phase transition point, with which the critical exponent is associated.

Close relationship between Bessel-Gaussian and conical refraction beams.

We demonstrate that the conical refraction of the input elegant Laguerre-Gaussian beams can be effectively described through generalized Bessel-Gaussian light beams. We performed numerical simulations and show good agreement between the exact solution and our proposed Bessel-Gaussian approximation model. Physical clarity of the proposed model has allowed us to explain the transition of the classical double-ring pattern of conical refraction in the Lloyd plane into a multi-ring one and predict new phenomenon such as the Raman spot shift and dependence of the conical refraction ring radius on the value of the orbital angular momentum.

Conical refraction mode of an optical resonator.

The fundamental mode of a conical refraction resonator, i.e., an optical cavity where light experiences conical refraction (CR) from a biaxial crystal, is experimentally demonstrated in the plano-concave cavity configuration.

Conical refraction with low-coherence light sources.

We report on conical refraction (CR) with low-coherence light sources, such as light-emitting diodes and decoherentized HeNe laser radiation, and demonstrate different CR patterns. In our experiments, a variation of the pinhole sizes from 25 to 100 µm and the distances to pinhole from 50 to 5 cm reduced spatial coherence of radiation that resulted in the disappearance of the dark Poggendorff's ring in the Lloyd's plane. This is attributed to the interference nature of the Lloyd's distribution and found to be in excellent agreement with the paraxial dual-cone model of conical refraction.

Conical refraction output from a Nd:YVO laser with an intracavity conerefringent element.

A conical refraction (CR) laser based on an a-cut Nd:YVO laser was demonstrated. By using a KGW crystal as a CR element, a typical laser with a Gaussian intensity output profile was transformed into a laser with conically refracted output. The CR laser delivered 220 mW of output power for 500 mW of pump power.

3D laser nano-printing on fibre paves the way for super-focusing of multimode laser radiation.

Multimode high-power laser diodes suffer from inefficient beam focusing, leading to a focal spot 10-100 times greater than the diffraction limit. This inevitably restricts their wider use in 'direct-diode' applications in materials processing and biomedical photonics. We report here a 'super-focusing' characteristic for laser diodes, where the exploitation of self-interference of modes enables a significant reduction of the focal spot size.

Half-disk laser: insight into the internal mode structure of laser resonators.

Usually electromagnetic modes inside a laser resonator are a matter of the theoretical studies. In a sense we manage "to have a look into a whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonator" and observe how the resonator modes arrange in reality. The picture occurs to be quite different from the commonly used Bessel modes in a disk resonator.

Slow passage through thresholds in quantum dot lasers.

A turn on of a quantum dot (QD) semiconductor laser simultaneously operating at the ground state (GS) and excited state (ES) is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. We find experimentally that the slow passage through the two successive laser thresholds may lead to significant delays in the GS and ES turn ons. The difference between the turn-on times is measured as a function of the pump rate of change ɛ and reveals no clear power law.

Quantum dot semiconductor disk laser at 1.3 μm.

We present a semiconductor disk laser (SDL) emitting at the wavelength of 1.3 μm. The active region of the SDL comprises InAs quantum dots (QDs) that are embedded into InGaAs quantum wells (QWs).

574-647 nm wavelength tuning by second-harmonic generation from diode-pumped PPKTP waveguides.

We present a compact, all-room-temperature continuous-wave laser source in the visible spectral region between 574 and 647 nm by frequency doubling of a broadly tunable InAs/GaAs quantum-dot external-cavity diode laser in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal containing three waveguides with different cross-sectional areas (4×4, 3×5, and 2  μm×6  μm). The influence of a waveguide's design on tunability, output power, and mode distribution of second-harmonic generated light, as well as possibilities to increase the conversion efficiency via an optimization of a waveguide's cross-sectional area, was systematically investigated. A maximum output power of 12.

Efficient yellow-green light generation at 561 nm by frequency-doubling of a QD-FBG laser diode in a PPLN waveguide.

A compact high-power yellow-green continuous wave (CW) laser source based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a 5% MgO doped periodically poled congruent lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide crystal pumped by a quantum-dot fiber Bragg grating (QD-FBG) laser diode is demonstrated. A frequency-doubled power of 90.11 mW at the wavelength of 560.

Second harmonic generation in a low-loss orientation-patterned GaAs waveguide.

The technology of low-loss orientation-patterned gallium arsenide (OP-GaAs) waveguided crystals was developed and realized by reduction of diffraction scattering on the waveguide pattern. The propagation losses in the OP-GaAs waveguide were estimated to be as low as 2.1 dB/cm, thus demonstrating the efficient second harmonic generation at 1621 nm under an external pumping.

Orange-to-red tunable picosecond pulses by frequency doubling in a diode-pumped PPKTP waveguide.

A compact picosecond all-room-temperature orange-to-red tunable laser source in the spectral region between 600 and 627 nm is demonstrated. The tunable radiation is obtained by second-harmonic generation in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) multimode waveguide using a tunable quantum-dot external-cavity mode-locked laser. The maximum second-harmonic output peak power of 3.

Conical Refraction: new observations and a dual cone model.

We propose a paraxial dual-cone model of conical refraction involving the interference of two cones of light behind the exit face of the crystal. The supporting experiment is based on beam selecting elements breaking down the conically refracted beam into two separate hollow cones which are symmetrical with one another. The shape of these cones of light is a product of a 'competition' between the divergence caused by the conical refraction and the convergence due to the focusing by the lens.

[Polaroid oscopic diagnosis of early corneal dystrophic changes in dry eye syndrome].

The current methods widely used in ophthalmology to examine patients to diagnose the dry eye syndrome and to trace the course of a process are invasive. Both the Norn test using stains and the Schirmer test with the filter paper strips being inserted are stimuli that affect the rate of tear generation, which misrepresents the data obtainable. The developed procedures for examining the eye in polarized light permit one to considerably reduce the invasiveness of patient examination.

[Methods of the study of basal lacrimal secretion].

The authors propose a nontraditional method for the study of basal lacrimal secretion, based on biometry of the height of the lacrimal flow meniscus during common biomicroscopy. The advantages of this method are shown: it is noninvasive, contact-free, available, and informative for assessing basal lacrimal secretion. The authors defined the normal value of lacrimal meniscus height in health and detected noticeable changes of basal secretion in secondary dry syndrome.