Electrically wavelength tunable semiconductor laser

US5101414A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Alcatel N.V. · NL

Inventors

• Michael Schilling · Stuttgart, DE
• Klaus Wunstel · Schwieberdingen, DE
• Kaspar Dutting · Stuttgart, DE
• Heinz Schweizer · Heidenheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 15, 1990
• Grant date: Mar 31, 1992
• Expiry date: Oct 15, 2010

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S5/2275
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A semiconductor laser in which the photons injected from its waveguide region into the laser active region are those whose energies differ from the energy sum of the chemical potential of the electron-hole pairs and the energy of the longitudinal acoustic phonons by less than one-half the thermal energy is described. A current directed into the photon emission region in the area of the Bragg grating causes photons of this energy to be injected into the laser active region which is constituted of a layer of indium gallium arsenide phosphide.