Patent · US Expired

Tunable laser source apparatus having wideband oscillation wavelength continuous sweep function

US6081539A · kind A · utility

37Cited by
8References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 30, 1999
Grant dateJun 27, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 30, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01S5/143
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A tunable laser source apparatus includes an external cavity. The external cavity includes a semiconductor laser and a diffraction section. At least one laser output end facet of the semiconductor laser is covered with an AR coating. The diffraction section includes a first reflector and a diffraction grating, and has wavelength selectivity with which light emerging from the end facet of the semiconductor laser which is covered with the AR coating is received, and light having a predetermined wavelength is selected and reflected toward the semiconductor laser. The semiconductor laser further includes an angle detection section and a control section. The angle detection section detects the angle defined by the optical path of the light emerging from the semiconductor laser and the optical path of the diffracted light reflected by the diffraction section. The control section controls at least the cavity length of the external cavity or the selected wavelength of the diffraction section to set the angle detected by the angle detection section to zero.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.