Semiconductor lasers are the most widely used lasers in our daily lives for their compact size, high efficiency, low cost, and wide spectra. But they suffer low output power and low beam quality -- two specifications difficult to improve simultaneously. For example, although a larger cavity increases power, it supports more modes to lase which decreases beam quality.
Previously, a new cavity "Dirac-vortex topological cavity" was demonstrated by the L01 group at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) led by Prof. LU Ling, which offers the best single-mode selection over the largest area. This cavity design was proposed to overcome the above-mentioned bottlenecks of semiconductor lasers and simultaneously improves the output power and beam quality.
Recently, the same team applied their topological cavity to surface emitting lasers and invented the topological-cavity surface-emitting laser (TCSEL), whose performance can far exceed that of the commercial counterparts.
In their report published in Nature Photonics
