Abstract

Semiconductor laser diodes based on the group III-nitride material system are versatile tools for accessing the blue-violet portion of the optical spectrum and are important for spectroscopic applications in atomic transitions such as the Rb 5S_1/2-6P_3/2 (420 nm wavelength). To perform time resolved atomic spectroscopy measurements (e.g., to measure the excited state lifetime of an atomic energy transition), the interrogating laser must operate with short optical pulses and precise wavelength. One method to achieve this is to use group III-nitride multi-section laser diodes (MSLD) operating in the Q-switching regime, where short optical pulses with high peak powers have been obtained [1], and force it to lase in the desired wavelength by performing optical injection locking [2] with a continuous wave (CW) reference laser. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of injection locking of self-pulsating or passively Q-switched blue-violet diode lasers.

© 2015 IEEE