Future of Gallium Arsenide Laser

Hi Matt ,

Interesting questions; You might look at what a distant relative of ours does at Perdue U, with respect to Gallium. I bet with his background, he has some Gallium lasers in use too , he's pretty darn sharp and might could give you some direction. He just released some info on H2 production using Ga.

You'll find 1 link at :

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE/People/profile?resource_id=3058

and

http://www.purdue.edu/dp/energy/centers/hydrogen.php

and theres lots more on the internet.

Good luck & keep us all posted as we need good minds !

Regards,

Joe Woodall, MP

Georgia Adobe LP

Dewy Rose GA

Gallium arsenide is just one minor branch on the tree of solid state lasers! There's all sorts of stuff happening with them. Look up DPSS on Google and see what you find. Solid state semiconductor lasers are just about the only new and advancing laser field. I don't think anyone sees its end anywhere in the near future.

I got my 50 Watt laser diode just about finished. It has a power factor of almost 1 amp = 1 Watt. And that's just the start!

Just wanted to say thanks for the comments. Its good to know that there are many different types materials to produce lasers and not just GaAs based. Also, it was interesting to read about how Perdue was able to make Hydrogen by using Al and Ga, though I still need to read more into it (weekend almost here :D).

Regards,

Matt

Enjoy the weekend! Just remember after the haze parts Monday morning that if you like physics and technology based on that realm, semiconductor photonics (notice I didn't just say lasers) is a a huge field for the future! Just a quick example - I work in the networking industry, and there are many companies trying to make THE photon-to-photon networking devices, with no electronics between whatsoever!

Also, consider that my 1992 copy of "The Laser Guidebook" has about a third devoted to semiconductors!

Anyway, have fun! I wish I were you!

Speaking of Haze. I've had a question for a while. When we take the wafers out of the machine, the first thing we do is measure surfscan, which uses a laser to measure the size of diffractions to measure deflect size and quantity (or atleast as far as I know). The results have a histogram of number of defects per size. But after that, there is a section that shows haze average and haze in ppm. How is haze different from number of defects. I've been told haze is roughness, but isnt that the same thing as having a large number of small scale defects?

Photon to Photon networking? Are there some words, google search, besides the previous that would bring up information on this networking?

Regards,

Matt

I'm just guessing, but it sounds as though the "haze" is that part of the wafer (whatever) where no defect is large enough to be resolved by the wavelength of laser light. In this case, one does not get either large reflections or non-reflections. The haze (or noise) may give one an idea of how trust worthy the marginal part of the wafer is, and whether it will pay to proceed manufacturing in these areas or not.

Try searching on photonics, photonic circuitry, and optronics.

Good luck!

There are many trade magazines that can keep you very up to date on what is going on in laser development. Some are:

• Laser Focus World
• Photonics Spectra
• WDM Solutions

Another that is good reading in all areas of development science is NASA Tech Briefs.

You should be able to contact any of the publications and talk them into a free subscription, specially if you are in the industry or are a student. Their advertisers want your ear.

NASA Tech Briefs is available to ANYONE. A full two years before the R134a air conditioner refrigerant additive MAXI COOL went on the market, Tech Briefs was reporting its development, minus the trade name, for use on the shuttle. (Interesting stuff. You can add it to a full system. There will be an initial higher pressure, but over time it returns to normal. Its molecular structure combines in empty areas of the 134 molecule.) It increases heat transfer.