Tunable external cavity laser
US6301274A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 30, 1999 |
| Grant date | Oct 9, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 30, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S5/1071
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A tunable microelectromechanical optical filter is placed in a linear laser cavity and is tilted at a large enough angle to prevent the unwanted reflections from coupling back to the mode of the cavity. Front and back mirrors form the cavity with a lens matching the mode of the gain media to that of the tuning element. The gain media can be a semiconductor, a solid state crystal or a fiber based region. In another preferred embodiment, the invention includes a ring cavity geometry with clockwise laser oscillation. In this case, the surface of the tunable microelectromechanical filter can be perpendicular to the direction of laser oscillation since the unwanted reflection may be prevented from coupling to the cavity mode by the action of an isolator.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.