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US 5,691,999 AGranted
Compression-tuned fiber laser
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsGary A. Ball, William W. Morey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fiber laser 26 including a rare-earth doped fiber laser cavity 32 delimited by a pair of reflective elements 28,30, such as Bragg gratings, is tuned by compressing the cavity 32 and the gratings 28,30. Because an optical fiber is a much stronger under compression than in tension, the laser 26 is tunable over a much broader range than conventional tension/stretching techniques.
Claims11
A tunable laser, comprising:
- a laser cavity comprising a solid optical waveguide;
- said waveguide being doped with a rare-earth dopant which provides a gain medium within said laser cavity;
- a pair of reflective elements delimiting said laser cavity;
- the length of said laser cavity, the gain of said gain medium, and the reflectivity of said reflective elements being so as to cause lasing to occur at a predetermined lasing wavelength;
- said reflective elements reflecting incident light at said lasing wavelength;
- and
- compression means for compressing said solid optical waveguide so as to change said lasing wavelength.
4 more elements
A method for tuning the lasing wavelength of a waveguide laser, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining a laser cavity comprising a solid optical waveguide, a portion of which is doped with a rare-earth dopant;
- and
- compressing said solid optical waveguide thereby altering the length of said cavity and changing a lasing wavelength of said laser.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.