Generation of short optical pulses using strongly complex coupled DFB lasers
US6650673B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 15, 1998 |
| Grant date | Nov 18, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 15, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S5/1215
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A compact source capable of generating continuously tunable high frequency microwave radiation and short optical pulses in the picosecond/sub-picosecond range is invented. It includes a laser structure having two lasers formed on the same substrate which simultaneously operate at different longitudinal modes. Each laser has a complex coupled (gain-coupled or loss-coupled) grating which is formed by deep etching through a multi-quantum well structure, either of the active medium or of the additional lossy quantum-well layers, thus ensuring no substantial interaction between lasers. The lasers have a common active medium and shared optical path and provide mutual light injection into each other which results in generation of a beat signal at a difference frequency of two lasers. The beat frequency is defined by spacing between the laser modes and may be continuously tuned by current injection and/or temperature variation. Thus, the beat signal provides a continuously tunable microwave radiation. To form a train of short optical pulses, the beat signal is either further sent to a saturable absorber followed by a semiconductor optical amplifier, or sent directly into an optical compres…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.