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US 6,608,846 B1Granted
Bistable laser device with multiple coupled active vertical-cavity resonators
AssigneeSandia Corporation
InventorsArthur J. Fischer, Kent D. Choquette, Weng W. Chow
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Abstract
A new class of bistable coupled-resonator vertical-cavity semiconductor laser devices has been developed. These bistable laser devices can be switched, either electrically or optically, between lasing and non-lasing states. A switching signal with a power of a fraction of a milliwatt can change the laser output of such a device by a factor of a hundred, thereby enabling a range of optical switching and data encoding applications.
Claims11
A bistable laser device comprising:
- a) a base distributed Bragg reflector, comprising alternating layers of at least two electrically conducting single crystal semiconductor materials;
- b) a base electrical terminal functionally attached to the base distributed Bragg reflector;
- and,
- c) at least two laser cavity structures disposed in a vertical stack above the base distributed Bragg reflector, each of said laser cavity structures having a resonance wavelength and comprising;
- 1) an active laser medium stratum;
- 2) a laser cavity distributed Bragg reflector positioned above the active laser medium stratum, such that the laser cavity distributed Bragg reflector comprises alternating layers of at least two electrically conducting single crystal semiconductor materials;
- and,
- 3) a laser cavity electrical terminal functionally attached to the laser cavity distributed Bragg reflector.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.