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US 4,378,599 AGranted
Semiconductor laser having broadband laser gain
AssigneeBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
InventorsTheodoor C. Damen, Michel A. Duguay, Julian Stone
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Broadband laser gain is obtained in semiconductor materials by pumping an ultra-short laser cavity with picosecond excitation pulses. The broadband laser gain is used to provide picosecond laser radiation energy covering a wide spectrum of frequencies.
Claims6
A laser which comprises:
- a semiconductor material (1) having substantially parallel sides, said material being disposed between reflecting surfaces (2 and 3);
- means (15 and 16) for exciting said semiconductor material with a high intensity excitation pulse having an ultra-short time duration, the intensity of said excitation pulse being at least as great as 3 GW/cm.sup.2, the time duration of said excitation pulse being less than or substantially equal to one picosecond, the thickness of said laser semiconductor material being less than or substantially equal to 1 .mu.m, whereby a broadband laser gain at energies above the energy difference between the conduction and valence bands is produced.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.