US 4,901,321 AGranted

Optical waveguide made solid state material laser applying this waveguide

AssigneeThomson-CSF

InventorsRobert Blondeau, Yannic Bourdin, Beaudoin de Cremoux, Michel Papuchon, Michel Krakowsky, Alain Bensoussan, Manijeh Razeghi, Francoise Lozes

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Abstract

The invention concerns an optical guiding structure comprising, between two optical confinement layers, an optical guiding layer and an optical guiding element separated from each other by a layer for stopping chemical attack, to obtain by epitaxy methods and by chemical attack, a guiding element of which it is possible to precisely calibrate the thickness obtain surfaces of excellent quality and perform cutting out with sharpness, the invention being applicable to producing lasers and optical phase modulators.

Claims25

Dependent claims

Optical waveguide made of solid state materials and adapted to operate at an operating wavelength comprising:

at least one layer of optical guiding material having a first index, and being in a plane x O y defined between three points x, O and y;
at least one lower optical confinement layer below the optical guiding material layer, having a second index, and being extending along a plane parallel to the plane xOy and covered by said layer of optical guiding material;
at least one layer for stopping chemical attack completely covering the layer of optical guiding material;
at least one optical guiding element located on said layer for stopping chemical attack, and covering only part of said layer for stopping chemical attack, a material of the optical guiding element having a chemical nature different than that of the layer for stopping chemical attack and having a fourth index, the thickness of optical guiding element being smaller than few tenths of said operating wavelength of said waveguide;
and
at least one upper optical confinement layer above the optical guiding material, having a third index, completely covering said optical guiding element and the layer for stopping chemical attack in the portions where it is not covered by the optical guiding element;
the first index being higher than the second index and then the third index, the fourth index being higher than the third index.

4 more elements

Optical waveguide made of solid state materials comprising:

at least one layer of optical guiding material having a first index;
at least one lower optical confinement layer below the optical guiding material layer and having a second index;
at least one upper optical confinement layer above the optical guiding material and having a third index;
the first index being higher than the second index and than the third index,
at least one layer for stopping chemical attack between the layer of optical guiding material and the upper optical confinement layer;
and
at least one optical guiding element located on the layer for stopping chemical attack, between the layer for stopping chemical attack and the upper optical confinement layer, the material of the optical guiding element having a chemical nature different to that of the layer for stopping chemical attack and having a fourth index whose value is higher than the third index of the upper optical confinement layer, wherein the optical guiding element is in a plane xOy which is within said optical guiding element and defined between three points x, y, and O within said optical guiding element, and comprises in parallel to the plane xOy a determined number n of optical guiding sublayers, each made of a material, the index of which is higher than the third index of the upper optical confinement layer;
wherein the different optical guiding sub-layers are separated from one another by sub-layers for stopping chemical attack, each having a thickness distinctly smaller than the operating length of the waveguide.

5 more elements

Solid state laser which operates using a resonant cavity comprising, stacked one upon the other:

a lower optical confinement layer deposited on a substrate made of doped solid state material of a determined type, having a determined lattice parameter and energy band gap, having a second index and being extended along a plane parallel to a plane xOy defined between three points x, O and y;
an optical guiding layer acting as an active zone, made of a solid state material having a first index, having a lattice parameter adapted to a multiple or sub-multiple of said lattice parameter of the lower optical confinement layer and having an energy band gap lower than that of the lower optical confinement layer, and covering the lower optical confinement layer;
a layer for stopping chemical etching having a lattice parameter adapted to a multiple or sub-multiple of said lattice parameter of the optical guiding layer, and covering the optical guiding layer;
at least one optical guiding element located on said layer for stopping chemical etching, and covering only part of said layer for stopping chemical etching, a material of the optical guiding element having a chemical nature different than that of the layer for stopping chemical etching and having a fourth index, the thickness of optical guiding element being smaller than a few tenths of said an operating wavelength of said solid state laser;
at least one upper optical confinement layer above the optical guiding element, having a third index, completely covering said optical guiding element and the layer for stopping chemical etching in the portions where it is not covered by the optical guiding element, said at least one upper optical confinement layer being made of a doped solid state material of a type contrary to that of the lower optical confinement layer, having a lattice parameter adapted to that of the layer for stopping chemical etching and an energy band gap greater than that of the optical guiding layer and of the optical guiding element;
at least two conducting electrodes with which carriers can be injected, one of them being located above the upper optical confinement and the other being located below the lower optical confinement layer;
the first index being higher than the second index and than the third index, the fourth index being higher than the third index.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.