Monolithic multi-wavelength laser diode array

A multi-wavelength laser diode array comprising,

• a substrate,
• a plurality of contiguous semiconductor layers forming a heterostructure disposed on said substrate, said heterostructure including at least two adjacent lower bandgap layers together sandwiched between higher bandgap barrier layers forming a composite active region, said at least two adjacent lower bandgap layers having been formed from adjacent quantum well layers that were subsequently partially intermixed in at least one of their atomic species in at least one area of said active region to have a different light emission wavelength than other areas of said active region,
• means for pumping each area of said active region, and
• cavity means for providing feedback for each said area of said active region of lightwaves generated in said areas.

A monolithic frequency-converted laser comprising,

• a substrate,
• a diode laser formed on said substrate, wherein said diode laser is a multiwavelength laser array having a plurality of laterally spaced apart light emitting elements with at least two light emitting elements emitting light of different frequencies, and
• a harmonic generator composed of ferroelectric material integrally formed on the same said substrate as said diode laser, said harmonic generator being a ferroelectric waveguide array having a plurality of laterally spaced apart ferroelectric waveguides optically coupled to corresponding light emitting elements of said laser array for converting the different frequencies of light received from said multiwavelength laser array to harmonics of those frequencies,
• wherein at least one ferroelectric waveguide of said ferroelectric waveguide array is periodically poled with a domain period corresponding to the frequency of light received from the corresponding light emitting element of the laser array.

A monolithic frequency-converted laser comprising,

• a substrate,
• a diode laser formed on said substrate, wherein said diode laser is a multiwavelength laser array having a plurality of laterally spaced apart light emitting elements with at least two light emitting elements emitting light of different frequencies, and
• a harmonic generator composed of ferroelectric material integrally formed on the same said substrate as said diode laser, said harmonic generator being a ferroelectric waveguide array having a plurality of laterally spaced apart ferroelectric waveguides optically coupled to corresponding light emitting elements of said laser array for converting the different frequencies of light received from said multiwavelength laser array to harmonics of those frequencies,
• wherein said ferroelectric waveguide array is composed of ferroelectric material waveguide core layer sandwiched between a lower cladding layer formed epitaxially on said substrate and an upper cladding formed over said waveguide core layer, said lower cladding layer and said upper cladding being composed of material having a lower refractive index than said ferroelectric material waveguide core layer, and wherein said material of the ferroelectric waveguide array is composed of a three layer Ca.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x F.sub.2 /LiTaO.sub.3 /Ca.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x F.sub.2 sandwich deposited on a (111) GaAs surface of said substrate.

A monolithic frequency-converted laser comprising,

• a substrate,
• a diode laser formed on said substrate, wherein said diode laser is a multiwavelength laser array having a plurality of laterally spaced apart light emitting elements with at least two light emitting elements emitting light of different frequencies, and
• a harmonic generator composed of ferroelectric material integrally formed on the same said substrate as said diode laser, said harmonic generator being a ferroelectric waveguide array having a plurality of laterally spaced apart ferroelectric waveguides optically coupled to corresponding light emitting elements of said laser array for converting the different frequencies of light received from said multiwavelength laser array to harmonics of those frequencies,
• wherein said ferroelectric waveguide array is composed of a ferroelectric material waveguide core layer sandwiched between a lower cladding layer formed epitaxially on said substrate and an upper cladding formed over said waveguide core layer, said lower cladding layer and said upper cladding being composed of material having a lower refractive index than said ferroelectric material waveguide core layer, and wherein said material of the ferroelectric waveguide array is composed of three layer MgO/BaTiO.sub.3 /MgO sandwiched deposited on a (100) GaAs surface of said substrate.

A monolithic frequency-converted laser comprising,

• a substrate,
• a diode laser formed on said substrate,
• said diode laser having a quantum well active region structure with at least two adjacent lower bandgap layers together sandwiched between higher bandgap barrier layers, said adjacent lower bandgap layers having been at least partially intermixed in at least one of their constituent atomic species, the degree of intermixing determining an emission wavelength for said diode laser, and
• a harmonic generator composed of ferroelectric material integrally formed on the same said substrate as said diode laser, said harmonic generator including at least one ferrroelectric waveguide optically coupled to said diode laser for converting the frequency of light received from said diode laser to a harmonic of said frequency.