Widely-tunable laser apparatus
AssigneeEXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc.
InventorsGang He, Daniel Gariepy, Hongxin Chen, Francois Babin
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Abstract
A widely-tunable laser apparatus comprises a plurality of tunable lasers having different ranges that overlap to encompass a desired operating range of wavelengths (for example from 1250 nm to 1650 nm) of the widely-tunable laser apparatus. The tunable lasers are tunable synchronously and selectively with their respective outputs connected in common to sweep the output of the widely-tunable laser apparatus substantially continuously over said operating range. The tunable lasers share the same tuning means which has a plurality of independent channels, each for light from a respective one of the tunable lasers.
Claims10
A widely-tunable laser apparatus comprising a plurality of tunable lasers having different wavelength ranges and their respective outputs connected in common to an output port of the widely-tunable laser apparatus, the plurality of tunable lasers comprising a plurality of gain media, respectively, and common tuning means operable to tune the respective output wavelengths of the plurality of tunable lasers synchronously so as to vary the wavelength of laser light leaving the common output port substantially continuously over a range of wavelengths greater than any individual one of the wavelength ranges of the tunable lasers, the common tuning means having a plurality of distinct channels, each for light from a respective one of the tunable lasers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.