Laser system with integrated wavelength control

Abstract

Described herein are compact, high-power tunable optical sources with precise wavelength control. The tunable optical sources developed by the inventors and described herein use laser arrays that are compatible with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) schemes, making these sources particularly suitable for use in applications requiring high levels of data throughput. These sources use integrated wavemeters to measure the wavelength of optical emission. These wavemeters are formed monolithically on the same substrate hosting the laser array, resulting in a much smaller footprint than what is possible using conventional, external instrumentation. The wavemeters described herein use optical interferometers as part of a feedback control loop to ensure that the lasers emit light at the desired carrier wavelengths. A wavemeter can map the wavelength of emission of a laser to the wavelengths of emission of a calibrated optical source.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.