A chiral microchip laser using anisotropic grating mirrors for single mode emission.

A pair of nanostructured mirrors made of a diffraction grating inscribed in the top layer of a Bragg mirror are designed such that a phase shift near π and different reflected amplitudes exist between transverse electric (TE) and magnetic (TM) reflected polarization states at normal incidence. When a standing wave laser resonator is formed with two such mirrors and the two mirrors' principal axes are twisted one with respect to the other, this phase shift condition suppresses multiple longitudinal mode emission arising from axial spatial hole burning. In addition, the different amplitudes of TE and TM reflected polarizations create polarization eigenstates with different round-trip losses, suppressing one polarization eigenstate. Laser experiments made with a Yb-doped YAlO active material reveal enhanced purity of the emission spectrum compared to similar lasers using conventional laser mirrors. The proposed design enables a miniature single mode laser, replacing more complex designs usually needed to achieve that goal.