Fabry-Perot laser with wavelength control

• Main Authors: YIPTONG AUGUSTIN, MEARS ROBERT J, COHEN ADAM D
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.05.2004
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION; ELECTRICITY; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

A laser device, in particular a semiconductor laser, emitting optical radiation with a defined mode pattern can be produced from a standard Fabry-Perot (FP) laser by post-processing at the wafer level, i.e. before the wafer is separated into individual dies by cleaving/dicing. A sub-cavity is formed within the FP laser cavity. The sub-cavity has a predetermined length and is located between the FP facets. An aperiodic grating composed of a small number of contrast elements, typically less than 10, with predetermined inter-element separations and predetermined spacings relative to the sub-cavity is formed on or in the optical waveguide. The inter-element separations and the spacings relative to the sub-cavity produce a filtering function of the aperiodic grating for optical radiation propagating in the waveguide. The laser device is suitable for telecommunications applications due to its high side-mode-suppression ratio and narrow-linewidth.