Vertical cavity surface emitting laser that uses intracavity degenerate four wave mixing to produce phase-conjugated and distortion free collimated laser light

Abstract

The present invention is a “Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser” or “VCSEL” design, wherein the VCSEL device produces phase-conjugated distortion free (reversal of intracavity distortions like diffraction, divergence, and light scattering) and collimated (plane-parallel phase fronts) laser-light emissions. Moreover, through what is called intracavity degenerative four-wave mixing (called four-wave mixing because traditionally there are four frequencies of phase-matched laser light involved in the phase-conjugate process), that occurs within the nonlinear materials of the “Phase Conjugated Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser” or “PCVCSEL” device's vertical-cavity. Moreover, these nonlinear materials are located at the center of the PCVCSEL's vertical-cavity, wherein wave fronts produced by the PCVCSEL's two active-area laser pumps (called Pump and Pump ) will intersect with wave fronts produced by the PCVCSEL's two active-area laser probes (called Probe and Probe ), therein causing small and large spatial interference-gratings to form, which will ultimately form what is called a “phase conjugate mirror”. Furthermore, the semiconductor materials used in the PCVCSEL's vertical-cavity design must exhibit a nonlinear property, called the “third order susceptibility”, which is necessary for the production of a “phase conjugate mirror”. In-addition, materials that exhibit nonlinear third-order susceptibilities are not limited to semiconductor materials like (GaAs) or “Gallium-Arsenide”. (InAs) or “Indium-Arsenide”, (InP) or “Indium-Phosphide”, and (GaSb) or “Gallium-Antimonide”, moreover the ternary semiconductor materials having a Cubic crystal-symmetry of class-F43 and a space-group of “216”; but are also exhibited in photo-refractive materials like (KDP) or “Potassium-Dihydrogen-Phosphate”, and (ADP) or “Ammonium-Dihydrogen-Phosphate”, moreover the photo-refractive materials having a Tetragonal crystal-symmetry of class- and a space-group of “122”. Therefore, the photo-refractive materials that also exhibit nonlinear third-order susceptibilities can also be used in the center of the PCVCSEL's vertical-cavity design for producing phase-conjugated and distortion free optical radiation emissions.