Planar waveguide amplifier and laser radar device
AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Corporation
InventorsKenichi HIROSAWA, Narito SAMEJIMA, Kenichi UTO
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Abstract
A planar waveguide amplifier includes a planar waveguide including a flat plate-like core; a first cladding provided on a first principal face of the core; and a second cladding provided on a second principal face of the core, and signal light and pumping light travel into the planar waveguide so that the signal light and the pumping light propagate inside the core in such a manner that optical paths of the signal light and the pumping light overlap each other, and in a zig-zag manner, and the core is an amplification medium containing a rare-earth element serving as an active ion of a three-level system, and absorbs the signal light on the basis of a reduction in intensity of the pumping light.
Claims18
A planar waveguide amplifier comprising a planar waveguide including:
- a flat plate-like core to amplify signal light, with the core excited by pumping light;
- a first cladding to reflect light having propagated from the core back to the core, the first cladding being provided on a first principal face of the core;
- and
- a second cladding to reflect light having propagated from the core back to the core, the second cladding being provided on a second principal face of the core on an opposite side to the first principal face, wherein
- the signal light and the pumping light travel into the planar waveguide so that the signal light and the pumping light propagate inside the core in such a manner that optical paths of the signal light and the pumping light overlap each other, in directions opposite to each other, and in a zig-zag manner, and so that a portion through which the signal light and the pumping light do not pass is formed inside the core, and
- the core is an amplification medium that contains a rare-earth element serving as an active ion of a three-level system, and absorbs scattered light of the signal light and amplified spontaneous emission in a portion through which the pumping light does not pass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.