Corrugation coupled twin guide laser

An electrically pumped, distributed feedback, twin waveguide diode laser comprising:

• a semiconductor body comprised of a plurality of contiguous layers of semiconductor material, one of said layers being an active region layer wherein carrier re-combination occurs and another of said layers being a light guiding layer,
• said active region layer being bounded by layers of material that have a higher bandgap than the material of said active region layer, said light guiding layer being bounded by layers of material that have a higher bandgap than the material of said light guiding layer,
• said active region layer being of one conductivity type and one of the layers bounding said active region layer being of the other conductivity type such that a rectifying junction is provided between said active region layer and said one of the layers bounding said active region layer, carriers injected under forward bias across said rectifying junction undergoing radiative recombination in said active region layer to generate stimulated coherent radiation,
• said active region layer and said light guiding layer being disposed within said body such that a portion of said coherent radiation spreads to said light guiding layer,
• at least a portion of one of said boundaries formed with said light guiding layer being a non-planar boundary, said non-planar boundary providing a periodic perturbation of the refractive index therealong and interacting with some of said portion of said coherent radiation to cause said some radiation to be reflected by said periodic perturbation, said perturbation having a period such that said reflected radiation is in phase.

An electrically pumped, distributed feedback, twin waveguide diode laser comprising:

• a semiconductor body comprised of a plurality of contiguous layers of semiconductor material, one of said layers being the laser active region layer,
• said active region layer being bounded on one side by a first layer and being bounded on another side by a second layer,
• a third layer, said third layer being bound on one side by said second layer and being bonded on another side by a fourth layer,
• said active region layer being of one conductivity type and one of the layers bounding said active region layer being of the other conductivity type such that a rectifying junction is provided between said active region layer and said one of the layers bounding said active region layer, carriers injected under forward bias across said rectifying junction undergoing radiative recombination in said active region layer to generate stimulated coherent radiation,
• the material of said active region layer having a lower bandgap than the materials of both said first layer and said second layer, the material of said third layer having a lower bandgap than the materials of both said second layer and said fourth layer such that coherent radiation that spreads to said third layer is confined to said third layer, said materials of different bandgap providing a plurality of heterojunctions within said semiconductor body,
• one of said heterojunctions being a non-planar heterojunction, said non-planar heterojunction providing a periodic perturbation of refractive index therealong which interacts with a portion of said radiation to cause said portion of said radiation to be reflected by said periodic perturbation, said perturbation having a period such that said reflected radiation is in phase.

An electrically pumped, distributed feedback, twin waveguide diode laser comprising:

• a semiconductor body comprised of a plurality of contiguous layers of semiconductor material, one of said layers being an active region layer wherein carrier recombination occurs and another of said layers being a light guiding layer;
• said active region layer being bounded by layers of material that have a lower refractive index than the refractive index of the material of said active region layer, said light guiding layer being bounded by layers of material that have a lower refractive index than the refractive index of the material of said light guiding layer, said materials of different refractive index providing a plurality of heterojunctions within said semiconductor body,
• said active region layer being of one conductivity type and one of the layers bounding said active region layer being of the opposite conductivity type such that a rectifying junction is provided between said active region layer and said one of the layers bounding said active region layer, carriers injected under forward bias across said rectifying junction undergoing radiative recombination in said active region layer to generate stimulated coherent radiation,
• said active region layer and said light guiding layer being disposed within said body such that coherent radiation spreads to said light guiding layer,
• at least a portion of one of said heterojunctions being a non-planar heterjunction, said non-planar heterojunction providing a periodic perturbation of the refractive index therealong and interacting with coherent radiation to cause coherent radiation to be reflected by said periodic perturbation, said perturbation having a period such that said reflected coherent radiation is in phase.