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US 11,387,619 B2Granted
Micro-optical bench architecture for master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA)
AssigneesItf Technologies Inc., O-Net Communications (Shenzhen) Limited
InventorsStéphane Caplette, Hong Xie, Nigel Holehouse, Julien Magné
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical system allows sharing of optical components and seed and pump light to achieve desired optical amplification in laser light while reducing the number of optical components and complexity of the overall optical system and achieving improved performance in lasers and reduced cost in fabrication and final lasers for large scale production of such lasers. Different optical gain sections can be used to allow for sharing of seed and pump light and sharing of optical components while providing multi-stage optical amplification.
Claims30
A laser system having shared pump and seed light in different optical amplification sections, comprising:
- a support base as an optical bench;
- a seed laser on the support base to produce seed laser light at a seed laser wavelength;
- an optical circulator on the support base to include first, second and third optical ports for receiving and output laser light, the optical circulator spaced from the seed laser and located to receive the seed laser light in free space at the first optical port to direct the received seed laser light to the second optical port and to direct light received at the second optical port to the third optical port;
- a pump light source on the support base to produce pump laser light at a pump laser wavelength different from the seed laser wavelength;
- a first dichroic reflector on the support base and located to receive the pump laser light from the pump light source in free space and the seed laser light from the second optical port of the optical circulator in free space to produce a combined laser beam that combines the received pump laser light and the seed laser light, the first dichroic reflector configured to transmit light at the pump laser wavelength and reflect light at the seed laser wavelength;
- a first fiber collimator on the support base to receive in free space the combined laser beam from the first dichroic reflector,
- a first fiber gain section including a first fiber terminal coupled to the first fiber collimator to receive the combined laser beam, a second opposite fiber terminal and a doped gain fiber section between the first and second fiber terminals to convert energy of the pump laser light in the combined laser beam into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- a fiber Bragg grating formed in the first fiber gain section between the second fiber terminal and the doped gain fiber section to reflect light at the seed laser wavelength back to the doped gain fiber section to be amplified for a second time as a reflected amplified seed laser light beam at the first fiber terminal while transmitting light at the pump laser light wavelength as a residual pump laser beam to the second fiber terminal, wherein the reflected amplified seed laser light beam at the first fiber terminal is received by the first fiber collimator and is directed in free space to the first dichroic reflector which further directs the reflected amplified seed laser light beam in free space back to the second optical port of the optical circulator,
- a second fiber collimator on the support base and coupled to the second fiber terminal of the first fiber gain section to direct the residual pump laser beam out of the first fiber gain section into free space over the support base;
- a third fiber collimator on the support base to receive the reflected amplified seed laser light beam in free space from the third optical port of the optical circulator;
- a second fiber gain section including a first fiber terminal coupled to the third fiber collimator to receive the reflected amplified seed laser light beam from the first fiber gain section, a second opposite fiber terminal and a doped gain fiber section between the first and second fiber terminals to convert energy of the pump laser light in the combined laser beam into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- and
- a fourth fiber collimator on the support base and coupled to the second terminal of the second fiber gain section, the fourth fiber collimator located to receive in free space the residual pump laser beam from the second fiber collimator to provide pump light at the doped gain fiber section in the second fiber gain section in an opposite direction of the reflected amplified seed laser light beam from the first fiber gain section to amplify the reflected amplified seed laser light beam as an amplified transmitted seed laser beam to exit the second fiber gain section at the fourth fiber collimator.
10 more elements
A laser system having shared pump and seed light in different optical amplification sections, comprising:
- a support base as an optical bench;
- a seed laser on the support base to produce seed laser light at a seed laser wavelength;
- a pump light source on the support base to produce pump laser light at a pump laser wavelength different from the seed laser wavelength;
- a first free-space optical module on the support base and located to receive both the seed laser light from the seed laser and the pump laser light from the pump light source to produce a combined laser beam that combines the received pump laser light and the seed laser light;
- a first fiber collimator on the support base to receive in free space the combined laser beam from the first free-space optical module;
- a first fiber gain section including a first fiber terminal coupled to the first fiber collimator to receive the combined laser beam, a second opposite fiber terminal and a doped gain fiber section between the first and second fiber terminals to convert energy of the pump laser light in the combined laser beam into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- a first optical reflector located to reflect light at the seed laser wavelength back to the doped gain fiber section to be amplified for a second time as a reflected amplified seed laser light beam at the first fiber terminal while transmitting light at the pump laser light wavelength as a residual pump laser beam to the second fiber terminal, wherein the reflected amplified seed laser light beam at the first fiber terminal is received by the first fiber collimator and is directed in free space to the first free-space optical module;
- a second fiber collimator on the support base and coupled to the second fiber terminal of the first fiber gain section to direct the residual pump laser beam out of the first fiber gain section into free space over the support base;
- a third fiber collimator on the support base to receive the reflected amplified seed laser light beam in free space from the first free-space optical module;
- a second fiber gain section including a first fiber terminal coupled to the third fiber collimator to receive the reflected amplified seed laser light beam from the first fiber gain section, a second opposite fiber terminal and a doped gain fiber section between the first and second fiber terminals to convert energy of the pump laser light in the combined laser beam into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- a fourth fiber collimator on the support base and coupled to the second terminal of the second fiber gain section, the fourth fiber collimator located to receive in free space the residual pump laser beam from the second fiber collimator to provide pump light at the doped gain fiber section in the second fiber gain section in an opposite direction of the reflected amplified seed laser light beam from the first fiber gain section to amplify the reflected amplified seed laser light beam as an amplified transmitted seed laser beam to exit the second fiber gain section at the fourth fiber collimator;
- and
- a second free-space optical module coupled between the fourth fiber collimator and the second fiber collimator to guide the residual pump laser beam from the second fiber collimator into the fourth fiber collimator and to further guide the amplified transmitted seed laser beam from the fourth fiber collimator as an output of the laser system.
10 more elements
A laser system having shared pump and seed light in different optical amplification sections, comprising:
- a support base as an optical bench;
- a seed laser on the support base to produce seed laser light at a seed laser wavelength;
- a pump light source on the support base to produce pump laser light at a pump laser wavelength different from the seed laser wavelength;
- a first free-space optical module on the support base and located to receive both the seed laser light from the seed laser and the pump laser light from the pump light source to produce a combined laser beam that combines the received pump laser light and the seed laser light;
- a first optical gain section on the support base and coupled to receive the combined laser beam to convert energy of the pump laser light in the combined laser beam into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- an optical reflector located to reflect light at the seed laser wavelength back to the first optical gain section to be amplified for a second time as a reflected amplified seed laser light beam while transmitting light at the pump laser light wavelength as a residual pump laser beam to the second fiber terminal, wherein the reflected amplified seed laser light beam is directed in free space to the first free-space optical module;
- a second optical gain section on the support base and coupled to receive the reflected amplified seed laser light beam from the first optical gain section via the first free-space optical module and to receive in free space the residual pump laser beam to provide pump light in an opposite direction of the reflected amplified seed laser light beam to amplify the reflected amplified seed laser light beam as an amplified transmitted seed laser beam;
- and
- a second free-space optical module coupled to guide the residual pump laser beam from the first optical gain section and to further guide the amplified transmitted seed laser beam from the second optical gain as an output of the laser system.
6 more elements
A laser system having shared pump and seed light in different optical amplification sections, comprising:
- a support base as an optical bench;
- a seed laser on the support base to produce seed laser light at a seed laser wavelength;
- a pump light source on the support base to produce pump laser light at a pump laser wavelength different from the seed laser wavelength;
- a first fiber gain section coupled to receive the seed laser light and the pump laser light and structured to include a doped gain fiber section which converts energy of the pump laser light into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- a second fiber gain section coupled to receive the amplified seed light from the first fiber gain section and structured to include a doped gain fiber section to convert energy of the pump laser light into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- a third fiber gain section coupled to receive the amplified seed light from the second fiber gain section and structured to include a doped gain fiber section to convert energy of the pump laser light into energy of the seed laser light to produce amplified seed laser light;
- and
- an optical splitter coupled to receive the pump laser light from the pump light source and to split the pump laser light into a first pump beam coupled into the first and second gain fiber sections and a second pump beam coupled into the third gain fiber section.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.