A set of applications of interest for semiconductor lasers constitutes their use under irradiation conditions in nuclear power plants, radiation processing facilities, high energy physics accelerators, nuclear waste management sites, or even space crafts. One such an example is the task related to remote handling and control in fusion installations (i.e. ITER - the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). The paper reports our results on the irradiation effects on different semiconductor laser structures, emitting at 850 nm, 1310, 1550 nm, as they were subjected either to gamma-ray (total dose of 1.5 MGy) or neutron irradiation (total fluence of 10¹³ n/ cm² ), in the frame of the European Union's Fusion Program. The electrical, optical and optoelectronics characteristics (the optical power vs. the driving current of the semiconductor laser; the embedded photodiode current vs. the emitted optical power; the direct voltage vs. the driving current, the external quantum efficiency, the serial resistance, the photodiode responsivity) were monitored under these conditions. All the investigated devices were commercially available products. The irradiations were done at room temperature, and the measurements were carried off-line.

Date Published: 26 October 2007
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 6796, Photonics North 2007, 67962R (26 October 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.778925

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6796:
Photonics North 2007
John Armitage, Editor(s)