Depolarized semiconductor laser sources
US6760151B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 27, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jul 6, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 27, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S5/0656
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A semiconductor pump laser uses a depolarzer to depolarize the pump light entering the fiber amplifier. The depolarized light source is useful for reducing polarization dependent gain of fiber amplifiers. The pump laser includes one or more semiconductor, coherence-collapsed laser sources emitting polarized pump outputs, and one or more depolarizers disposed to depolarize the polarized pump output from the lasers. One or more fiber outputs are coupled to the one or more depolarizers to receive depolarized pump light. The depolarizer may include an N×M polarization preserving coupler having N inputs and M outputs, N and M being at least 2, an input to the depolarizer at a first coupler input, an output port from the depolarizer at a first coupler output. A polarization-controlling optical path is coupled between a second coupler output and a second coupler input. A polarization of light exiting the N×M coupler through the second coupler output is substantially orthogonal to a polarization of light entering the N×M coupler through the second coupler input.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.