Open AccessTime multiplexing of high power laser diodes with single crystal photo-elastic modulators
Author(s) -
F. Bammer,
B. Holzinger,
T. Schumi
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.14.003324
Subject(s) - optics , laser , diode , multiplexing , polarization (electrochemistry) , materials science , optoelectronics , semiconductor laser theory , beam splitter , modulation (music) , physics , telecommunications , chemistry , computer science , acoustics
Time-multiplexing is a method to increase the brilliance of diode lasers, i.e. a sequence of laser pulses emitted from different laser diodes at different times is guided onto a common optical path via a cascade of polarizing cube beam splitters and polarization switches. The latter are made of piezo-electric crystals oscillating in resonance and making use of the photo-elastic effect to obtain the desired modulation of polarization. We realized a demonstrator for time multiplexing of four laser diodes with such self-excited photo-elastic modulators. The latter is a new alternative to conventional photo-elastic modulators used in ellipsometers.