Controlled far-field pattern selection in diffraction-coupled semiconductor laser arrays

US4764935A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• TRW Limited · US

Inventors

• Jaroslava Z. Wilcox · Los Angeles, US
• Michael Jansen · Palo Alto, US
• Arnold H. Silver · Rancho Palos Verdes, US
• Jane J. Yang · Los Angeles, US
• William W. Simmons · Rancho Palos Verdes, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 6, 1987
• Grant date: Aug 16, 1988
• Expiry date: Apr 6, 2007

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S5/06243
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A diffraction-coupled semiconductor laser array, and a related method for its operation, the array structure having a diffraction section that is electrically controllable independently of a waveguide section having multiple laser channels. Above a critical level of injected gain in the diffraction region, and with appropriate selection of channel and diffraction region dimensions, stable operation in the in-phase supermode results, with adjacent lasers operating in phase and a single-lobed far-field distribution pattern being produced. Below the critical level of injected gain, the out-of-phase supermode or multimode operation is favored and the narrow single peak of the far-field pattern is no longer present. This mode switching can be used to rapidly modulate operation of the array without directly switching it on and off.