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US 6,687,269 B1Granted
Spread spectrum dither for locking to transmission peak in tunable laser
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsMark S. Rice, Andrew J. Daiber
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus including a cavity optical length actuator to vary a cavity optical path length of a laser in response to an excitation signal having varying frequencies. The cavity optical length actuator induces intensity perturbations in an optical beam of the laser corresponding to the excitation signal. A sensor senses the intensity perturbations in the optical beam and generates a response signal corresponding to the intensity perturbations. A combiner combines the excitation signal and the response signal to generate an error signal.
Claims32
A laser apparatus, comprising:
- a gain medium pumped to emit a plurality of photons in response to an electrical input;
- a laser cavity, optically coupled to the gain medium, in which said plurality of photons resonate in accordance with a plurality of lasing modes;
- a signal generator, to generate an excitation signal having varying frequencies;
- a cavity optical length actuator to vary a cavity optical path length of the laser and responsive to the excitation signal to induce corresponding intensity perturbations in an optical beam produced by the laser;
- a sensor operatively coupled to sense the intensity perturbations in the optical beam and to generate a response signal corresponding to the intensity perturbations;
- a phase compensator to add a frequency dependent phase shift to the excitation signal to create a phase-shifted excitation signal that is synchronized with the response signal;
- and
- a combiner coupled to combine the phase-shifted excitation signal and the response signal to generate an error signal.
5 more elements
A method for tuning a laser, comprising:
- modulating a center lasing wavelength of an optical beam produced by the laser at a varying rate to induce an intensity perturbation in the optical beam in response to an excitation signal;
- sensing the intensity perturbation;
- combining the sensed intensity perturbation with the excitation signal to derive an error signal comprising a substantially direct current signal having an amplitude being indicative of a misalignment between the center lasing wavelength of the optical beam and a desired center lasing wavelength;
- and
- adjusting the center lasing wavelength of the optical beam responsive to the error signal.
2 more elements
A laser, comprising:
- means for generating an optical beam of the laser;
- means for generating an excitation signal having varying frequencies;
- means for varying a cavity optical path length of the laser responsive to the excitation signal to induce corresponding intensity perturbations in the optical beam;
- means for sensing the intensity perturbations in the optical beam and generating a response signal corresponding to the intensity perturbations;
- means for combining the excitation signal and the response signal to generate an error signal, the error signal comprising a substantially direct current signal having an amplitude being indicative of a misalignment between a center lasing wavelength of the laser and a desired center lasing wavelength.
2 more elements
A communication system, comprising:
- a tunable laser to generate an optical beam, the tunable laser comprising:
- a cavity optical length actuator to vary a cavity optical path length of the tunable laser responsive to an excitation signal having varying frequencies to induce corresponding intensity perturbations in the optical beam;
- a sensor operatively coupled to sense the intensity perturbation in the optical beam and to generate a response signal corresponding to the intensity perturbations;
- and
- a combiner coupled to combine the excitation signal and the response signal to generate an error signal, the error signal being indicative of a misalignment between a center lasing wavelength of the tunable laser and a desired center lasing wavelength;
- and
- an optic fiber coupled to receive the optical beam from the tunable laser and to transmit the optical beam over a fiber based network.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.