Optically pumped tunable VCSEL employing geometric isolation

US10951007B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Excelitas Technologies Corp. · US

Inventors

• Bartley C. Johnson · North Andover, US
• Walid A. Atia · Lexington, US
• Peter S. Whitney · Lexington, US
• Mark E. Kuznetsov · Lexington, US
• Edward J. Mallon · Marshfield, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 10, 2019
• Grant date: Mar 16, 2021
• Expiry date: May 10, 2039

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S5/50
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An optically pumped tunable VCSEL swept source module has a VCSEL and a pump, which produces light to pump the VSCEL, wherein the pump is geometrically isolated from the VCSEL. In different embodiments, the pump is geometrically isolated by defocusing light from the pump in front of the VCSEL, behind the VCSEL, and/or by coupling the light from the pump at an angle with respect to the VCSEL. In the last case, angle is usually less than 88 degrees. There are further strategies for attacking pump noise problems. Pump feedback can be reduced through (1) Faraday isolation and (2) geometric isolation. Single frequency pump lasers (Distributed feedback lasers (DFB), distributed Bragg reflector lasers (DBR), Fabry-Perot (FP) lasers, discrete mode lasers, volume Bragg grating (VBG) stabilized lasers can eliminate wavelength jitter and amplitude noise that accompanies mode hopping.