The present invention relates generally to optical devices, and particularly to superluminescent diodes (SLD's) and lasers.
There is currently a need for high power SLD's suitable for use as optical amplifiers. It is an object of the present invention to address this need. There is further a need for compact and reliable projections systems. It is another object of the present invention to address this need as well. The invention also enables one to provide and enable external cavity lasers.
An optical device including: first and second facets; an at least partially bent waveguide formed on a substrate and including a portion perpendicular to the first facet; and, a light amplification region coupled to the bent waveguide, the light amplification region including an expanding tapered portion and a contracting tapered portion wherein the contracting tapered portion approaches the second facet.
Referring now to the figures, like references there-throughout designate like elements of the invention. A double-pass or bent waveguide superluminescent diode (SLD) 10 utilized according to one aspect of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. The SLD 10 includes a ridge waveguide portion 20, having an effective index of refraction ne, along a substrate 30 having an index of refraction nc. The effective index is obtained from the active layer's bulk index nf by solving Maxwell's equation with the waveguide's boundary conditions. The SLD 10 includes a first facet 40 having a coating of a prescribed reflection, which may be a highly reflective coating or an anti-reflective (AR) coating and a second facet 50 having an (AR) coating. The lateral index step for the ridge waveguide 20 has a refractive index difference Δn≦0.01 according to an aspect of the present invention. The ridge waveguide 20 width (w) is such as to maintain a single transverse-mode, typically about 3 μm for operating wavelength in the 1000 nm range. Referring now also to
Referring again to
where
where ne is the effective index and X is the wavelength in free space, and
This expression can be simplified to
where Δn=ne−nc. The length s of the bent region is given by s=rφ, where φ is expressed in radians. For a ridge waveguide structure with an angle of 6° (˜0.1 radian), the length of the bend region is 0.1r, and a robust angle design with negligible bend loss is one for which r=10 mm and s=1 mm. For a chip of length 1 mm, the whole bent waveguide would simply be a circular arc, and the bend loss would be of the order of 1% or less.
This configuration was also described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,430,207, issued on Aug. 6, 2002, and entitled “MULTPLE-WAVELENGTH MODE-LOCKED LASER”, the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. Referring now also to
A “diamond-like” shaped SLD is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,524, issued on Jul. 9, 2002, and entitled “LIGHT EMITTING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE”, also hereby incorporated by reference herein. The “diamond-like” SLD structure thereof is capable of high power operation. This is possible because the walls of the waveguide are non-parallel, so it does not support high order waveguide modes. This allows its fabrication in a volume that is much larger than a conventional narrow stripe SLD, and hence gives it the capability for emitting high power in a single mode.
According to the present invention, the bent SLD configuration of FIG. 1 and the aforementioned diamond-like structure are used to produce a high-power single-mode SLD 300 as is shown in
According to an aspect of the present invention, the back facet 340 is coated with an interference filter that provides high reflectance, for example >95%. In some other aspects, such as some designs of external cavity lasers, it can also be anti-reflection coated. The front facet 350 is coated with an anti-reflection coating to increase output power according to another aspect of the invention. The waveguide layer structure can take the form of any typical laser diode structure including an active emission layer sandwiched between p and n cladding layers deposited epitaxially on a semiconductor substrate (GaAs for wavelength below 1,100 nm, or InP for wavelengths 1,300 nm to 2,000 nm, for example). Therefore, the waveguide structure can be fabricated using a conventional process of photolithography, etching, metallization, and facet coating. Upon application of an electric current to the device, light is created by spontaneous emission, and a small component of it propagates along the waveguide guide where it undergoes gain by stimulated emission and is output as Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE).
It should be understood that in a single-pass SLD device, the output light is the guided ASE component emanating from the back end of the structure and propagating with exponential gain toward the front end or output facet. According to another aspect of the present invention though, the output of the device 350 also includes light emanating from the front end 350, propagating toward the back facet 340, being reflected from the back facet 340 and emerging from the front facet 350 after two passes through the structure. As a result, the maximum output power in the double-pass structure 300 is advantageously proportional to the square of the gain of the device, whereas in the single-pass device it is only proportional to the gain. Thus, the double-pass SLD 300 is advantageously a more efficient gain medium than a single-pass device.
Still referring to
The laser can be made tunable by using a frequency-selective front feedback, such as provided by a grating. The gain-bandwidth of the SLD at 1550 nm is about 100 nm. This value would also be the tuning range of the laser. In this configuration, the wavelength tuning occurs at the output end. An alternate configuration of the ECL is one in which both front and back facets are anti-reflection coated and in which the external feedback element provides maximum reflection. In this case, the output is taken from the non-angled facet, separating the tuning function from the output function.
One convenient application of the configuration with the high-reflect back coating is in the generation of high power up-conversion light. As will be discussed, using such a configuration one can readily generate high power blue (˜460 nm) or green (˜520 nm) visible light from a gain medium of the type described herein by emitting radiation in the 910 to 930 nm range or 1020-1040 nm range, respectively.
Still referring to
Referring now also to
Still referring to
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,088, issued on Mar. 26, 2002, and entitled “ALL SOLID STATE HIGH POWER BROADBAND VISIBLE LIGHT SOURCE”, also herein incorporated by reference, there is described an up-conversion laser including a high-power diamond infrared gain medium and a length of rare-earth-doped fluoride fiber inside a double cavity for high conversion efficiency. A fiber laser system 500 is shown in FIG. 5.
Still referring to
Referring now to
A dual-cavity laser system according to the present invention is well suited for generating primary light sources for color projection systems. It is an advantageously compact, being a few centimeters in dimensions for example, point source which exhibits a low beam divergence, and is suitable for high efficiency projection systems, with high saturation colors and a long lifetime. According to another aspect of the present invention, such systems can produce visible output power in the 1 to 10 watt range.
Referring now to
Although the invention has been described and pictured in a preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form, has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the details of construction and combination and arrangement of parts maybe made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. It is intended that the patent shall cover by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty exist in the invention disclosed.
This application claims priority of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/185,133, entitled “DOUBLE-PASS HIGH POWER SUPERLUMINESCENT DIODE (SLD) AND OPTICAL AMPLIFIER WITH MODE STABILIZATION”, filed Feb. 25, 2000, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/US01/06039 | 2/23/2001 | WO | 00 | 2/5/2003 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO01/63331 | 8/30/2001 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20040126063 A1 | Jul 2004 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60185133 | Feb 2000 | US |