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US 2002/0154661 A1Published application
Modulatable multi-wavelength fiber laser source
AssigneeChromaplex, Inc.
InventorsJohn Hoose, Robert Frankel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A multi-wavelength external cavity fiber laser system is disclosed. Laser radiation from the cavity can be externally modulated at each wavelength and outputted as an overlapping beam having substantially all the wavelengths produced by the laser elements through a single fiber or as an array of wavelength-separated beams. The fiber laser can include an intra-cavity etalon that allows all wavelength to be tuned simultaneously.
Claims24
Multi-wavelength external cavity fiber laser, comprising:
- a fiber-optic amplifier (FOA) optically coupled to an optical circulator (OC), the FOA receiving optical radiation from a first port of the OC and supplying amplified optical radiation to a second port of the OC, said optical radiation having a plurality of wavelengths,
- an optical element having a focal plane, the optical element positioned to place the focal plane at a third port of the OC and to intercept the amplified optical radiation emerging from the third port;
- a partially reflecting output coupler;
- and
- a dispersive element positioned in an optical path between the optical element and the output coupler, said partially reflecting output coupler adapted to intercept the plurality of diffracted output beams produced by the dispersive element, each output beam having a unique wavelength,
- wherein the partially reflecting output coupler and the FOA coupled to the OC form the external cavity that produces the plurality of wavelengths.
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Method for producing externally modulated multi-wavelength laser radiation, comprising:
- generating with a fiber-optic gain element amplified optical radiation with a plurality of wavelengths;
- diffracting the amplified optical radiation to produce a plurality of spatially separated optical beams, each beam having a unique wavelength;
- reflecting a portion of a light intensity of the plurality of optical beams;
- recombining the reflected plurality of spatially separate optical beams into an overlapping beam that includes the plurality of wavelengths beams and returning the overlapping beam to the fiber-optic gain element;
- and
- extracting a remaining portion of the light intensity of the spatially separated plurality of optical beams
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.