Manufacturable vertical extended cavity surface emitting laser arrays
AssigneeArasor Corporation
InventorsAndrei V. Shchegrov, Jason P. Watson, Dicky Lee, Arvydas Umbrasas, Rene Dato, John Green, Michael Jansen, Aram Mooradian
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Arrays of vertical extended cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs) are disclosed. The functionality of two or more conventional optical components are combined into an optical unit to reduce the number of components that must be aligned during packaging. A dichroic beamsplitter selectively couples frequency doubled light out of the cavity. In one implementation the dichroic beamsplitter includes at least one prism.
Claims17
A semiconductor vertical, extended-cavity, surface-emitting laser array with intra-cavity nonlinear frequency doubling, comprising:
- an electrically pumped, surface-emitting semiconductor gain chip having an array of emitters formed in a common semiconductor substrate, each emitter generating light about a fundamental wavelength;
- an end reflector spaced apart from said surface-emitting semiconductor gain chip to define an extended cavity for each of said array of emitters, said end reflector having a high reflectivity at the fundamental laser wavelength;
- a nonlinear crystal disposed within the extended cavity to provide frequency doubling of light for the entire array of emitters;
- a wavelength control element disposed within the extended cavity to provide wavelength control for the entire array of emitters;
- and
- a polarization control element disposed within the extended cavity to provide polarization control for the entire array of emitters;
- said surface-emitting laser array having an optical unit having the functionality of at least two of said gain chip, said end reflector, said nonlinear crystal, said wavelength control element, and said polarization control element to reduce the number of components that must be aligned during packaging;
- and
- a dichroic beam-splitter having at least one prism to selectively redirect out of the cavity frequency doubled light traveling back to said gain chip.
A semiconductor, vertical, extended-cavity, surface-emitting laser array with intra-cavity nonlinear frequency doubling, comprising:
- an electrically pumped, surface-emitting semiconductor gain chip having an array of emitters formed in a common semiconductor substrate, each emitter generating light about a fundamental wavelength;
- an end reflector spaced apart from said surface-emitting semiconductor gain chip to define an extended cavity for each of said array of emitters, said end reflector having a high reflectivity at the fundamental laser wavelength;
- a nonlinear crystal disposed within the extended cavity to provide frequency doubling of light for the entire array of emitters;
- a wavelength control element disposed within the extended cavity to provide wavelength control for the entire array of emitters;
- and
- a dichroic beamsplitter selectively coupling light at a second harmonic frequency out of said extended cavity, said dichroic beamsplitter comprising at least one prism;
- said surface-emitting laser array having an optical unit having the functionality of at least two of said gain chip, said end reflector, said nonlinear crystal, said wavelength control element, and said polarization control element to reduce the number of components that must be aligned during packaging.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.