Thermally tunable laser and method for fabricating such laser
AssigneeFraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur F Rderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V.
InventorsMartin Möhrle, Moon-Hyeok Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermally tunable laser includes: a substrate; a laser resonator, wherein the laser resonator includes a gain section, and wherein the laser resonator includes a tuning section; a heating arrangement; a heat sink arrangement for dissipating a heat flow from the laser resonator to the heat sink arrangement; and a hole arrangement for influencing the heat flow from the laser resonator to the heat sink arrangement, wherein the hole arrangement is arranged between the substrate and the heat sink arrangement, wherein one or more holes of the hole arrangement include at least one hole being arranged within a horizontal range of the tuning section, so that a thermal resistance between the tuning section and the heat sink arrangement is increased.
Claims14
A thermally tunable laser comprising:
- a substrate comprising an upper side and a lower side;
- a laser resonator for producing a laser emission having a horizontal direction, wherein the laser resonator is arranged at the upper side of the substrate, wherein the laser resonator comprises a gain section for producing light for the laser emission, and wherein the laser resonator comprises a tuning section for tuning a wavelength of the laser emission, wherein the tuning section is arranged at an horizontal end of the gain section;
- a heating arrangement for heating the tuning section;
- a heat sink arrangement for dissipating a heat flow from the laser resonator to the heat sink arrangement, wherein the heat sink arrangement is arranged at the lower side of the substrate;
- and
- a hole arrangement for influencing the heat flow from the laser resonator to the heat sink arrangement, wherein the hole arrangement is arranged between the substrate and the heat sink arrangement, wherein one or more holes of the hole arrangement comprise at least one hole being arranged within a horizontal range of the tuning section, so that a thermal resistance between the tuning section and the heat sink arrangement is increased,
- wherein the at least one hole being arranged within the horizontal range of the tuning section comprises a recess within the substrate, the recess is configured to have a curved surface such that the heat flow from the laser resonator is routed around the curved surface of the recess and reaches the heat sink arrangement, and
- wherein the heat sink arrangement is thermally connected to the laser resonator, seen in the horizontal direction, on both sides of the at least one hole being arranged within the horizontal range of the tuning section.
A method for fabricating a thermally tunable laser, the method comprising:
- providing a substrate comprising an upper side and a lower side;
- arranging, at the upper side of the substrate, a laser resonator for producing a laser emission having a horizontal direction, wherein the laser resonator comprises a gain section for producing light for the laser emission, and wherein the laser resonator comprises a tuning section for tuning a wavelength of the laser emission, wherein the tuning section is arranged at an horizontal end of the gain section;
- arranging a heating arrangement for heating the tuning section;
- arranging, at the lower side of the substrate, a heat sink arrangement for dissipating a heat flow from the laser resonator to the heat sink arrangement;
- and
- arranging, between the substrate and the heat sink arrangement, a hole arrangement for influencing the heat flow from the laser resonator to the heat sink arrangement, wherein at least one hole of one or more holes of the hole arrangement is arranged within a horizontal range of the tuning section, so that a thermal resistance between the tuning section and the heat sink arrangement is increased, wherein the at least one hole arranged within the horizontal range of the tuning section comprises a recess within the substrate, the recess is configured to have a curved surface such that the heat flow from the laser resonator is routed around the curved surface of the recess and reaches the heat sink arrangement, and wherein the heat sink arrangement is thermally connected to the laser resonator, seen in the horizontal direction, on both sides of the at least one hole being arranged within the horizontal range of the tuning section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.