RANGER PROJECT
In this project we are interested in an special type of semiconductor
laser, the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). This laser
is an example of microlaser (with micrometric dimensions). Nowadays
VCSELs are used as emitters in local area networks, in optical
interconnections, optical mice, sensors... We are interested in a better
understanding of the characteristics of the light emitted by those
devices, not only in their solitary operation, but also when they are
subject to optical injection or optical feedback.
The objective of this project is to study, both from a theoretical
and an experimental points of view, advanced semiconductor lasers
emitting around 1550 nm and their applications in laser ranging systems.
Different ranging techniques making use of VCSELs subject to optical
feedback, like self-mixing interferometry or chaotic LIDAR will be
investigated.
Experiments are done in the Optical Communications Lab of the
Instituto de Física de Cantabria. We study how changes of the
polarization emitted by the VCSEL when it is subject to optical
reflections from an external target can be utilized to measure
distances, displacements and velocities of this target.
In a previous project (ALAS project) we studied VCSELs subject to
optical injection to get several functionalities of all-optical signal
processing: optical memories, inversion and regeneration of the signal.
High-speed all-optical signal processing is of great interest for future
applications in computing or in optical communication systems