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US 7,680,170 B2Granted
Coupling devices and methods for stacked laser emitter arrays
AssigneeOclaro Photonics, Inc.
InventorsYongdan Hu, James Harrison
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and devices for coupling the output light energy of one or more stacked laser emitter bar arrays using a beam interleaver and beam combiner to achieve high brightness and coupling efficiency. Some embodiments may include wavelength control devices and methods such as VIGs and the like.
Claims46
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- at least one stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters with the emitters of the at least one stacked array having substantially parallel emission axes and a substantially uniform polarization orientation;
- a fast axis collimator disposed adjacent the at least one stacked array and configured to collimate an output of the emitters of each laser emitter bar of the at least one stacked array in a fast axis direction;
- a beam interleaver having an input axis aligned with the output axes of the laser emitters of the at least one stacked array of laser emitter bars and configured to interleave a first output array from a plurality of laser emitter bars and a second output array from a plurality of laser emitter bars such that substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the first output array are disposed adjacent or between substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the second output array with the fast axes of the emitters of the first output array substantially aligned with the fast axes of the emitters of the second output array;
- a beam combiner having an input axis aligned with an output axis of the beam interleaver and configured to fold the vertically interleaved emission arrays of the first and second output arrays so as to reduce the overall beam size and increase the overall beam intensity;
- and
- focusing optics aligned with an output axis of the beam combiner.
3 more elements
A method of coupling light energy to an optical fiber, comprising:
- emitting a first output array of light energy and a second output array of light energy from at least one stacked array of laser emitter bars;
- vertically interleaving the first output array and the second output arrays of light energy with an interleaver;
- folding the interleaved first and second output arrays with a beam combiner;
- and
- focusing an output beam of the beam combiner into an input of an optical fiber.
2 more elements
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- a first stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters;
- a second stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters with the emission axes of the first stacked array being disposed substantially parallel to the emission axes of the second stacked array, the fast axes of the emitters of the first stacked array substantially aligned with the fast axes of the emitters of the second stacked array and the emitters of the first and second stacked arrays having a substantially uniform polarization orientation;
- a first fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the first stacked array of laser emitter bars in a fast axis direction;
- a second fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the second stacked array of laser emitter bars in a fast axis direction;
- a vertical beam interleaver having an input axis aligned with the emission axes of the laser emitters of the first and second stacked arrays and configured to translate an emission array of the first stacked array, an emission array of the second stacked array or both the emission array of the first stacked array and the emission array of the second stacked array in a fast axis direction such that substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the first stacked array are disposed adjacent or between substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the second stacked array;
- a beam combiner having an input axis aligned with an output axis of the vertical beam interleaver;
- and
- focusing optics aligned with an output axis of the beam combiner.
5 more elements
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- a first stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters;
- a second stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters with the emission axes of the first stacked array being disposed substantially parallel to the emission axes of the second stacked array, the slow axes of the emitters of the first stacked array substantially aligned with the slow axes of the emitters of the second stacked array with the first stacked array displaced in a fast axis direction relative to the second stacked array by about a one half a pitch of the first stacked array and the emitters of the first and second stacked arrays having a substantially uniform polarization orientation;
- a first fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the first stacked array of laser emitter bars in a fast axis direction;
- a second fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the second stacked array of laser emitter bars in a fast axis direction;
- a lateral beam interleaver having an input axis aligned with the emission axes of the laser emitters of the first and second stacked arrays and configured to translate an emission array of the first stacked array, an emission array of the second stacked array or both the emission array of the first stacked array and the emission array of the second stacked array in the slow axis direction such that substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the first stacked array are disposed adjacent and between substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the second stacked array with the fast axes of the emitters of the first stacked array substantially aligned with the fast axes of the emitters of the second stacked array;
- a beam combiner having an input axis aligned with an output axis of the lateral beam interleaver;
- and
- focusing optics aligned with an output axis of the beam combiner.
5 more elements
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- a first stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters;
- a second stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters with the emission axes of the first stacked array being disposed substantially parallel to the emission axes of the second stacked array, the fast axes of the emitters of the first stacked array substantially aligned with the fast axes of the emitters of the second stacked array and the emitters of the first and second stacked arrays having a substantially uniform polarization orientation;
- a first fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the first stacked array in a fast axis direction;
- a second fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the second stacked array in a fast axis direction;
- a vertical beam interleaver having an input axis aligned with the emission axes of the laser emitters of the first and second stacked arrays and configured to translate an emission array of the first stacked array, an emission array of the second stacked array or both the emission array of the first stacked array and the emission array of the second stacked array in a fast axis direction such that substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the first stacked array are disposed adjacent or between substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the second stacked array;
- a polarization beam combiner having an input axis aligned with an output axis of the vertical beam interleaver and configured to fold the interleaved emission arrays of the first and second stacked arrays in a fast axis direction so as to reduce the overall beam size and increase the overall beam intensity;
- and
- focusing optics aligned with an output axis of the polarization beam combiner.
5 more elements
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- a first stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters;
- a second stacked array of laser emitter bars which each have a plurality of laser emitters with a fast axis, a slow axis and an emission axis that is substantially perpendicular to the fast and slow axes disposed in a substantially linear configuration along a slow axis direction of the emitters and which are stacked along a fast axis direction of the emitters with the emission axes of the first stacked array being disposed substantially parallel to the emission axes of the second stacked array, the slow axes of the emitters of the first stacked array substantially aligned with the slow axes of the emitters of the second stacked array with the first stacked array displaced in a fast axis direction relative to the second stacked array by about one half a pitch of the first stacked array and the emitters of the first and second stacked arrays having a substantially uniform polarization orientation;
- a first fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the first stacked array in a fast axis direction;
- a second fast axis collimator configured to collimate an output of the second stacked array in a fast axis direction;
- a lateral beam interleaver having an input axis aligned with the emission axes of the laser emitters of the first and second stacked arrays and configured to translate an emission array of the first stacked array, an emission array of the second stacked array or both the emission array of the first stacked array and the emission array of the second stacked array in the slow axis direction such that substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the first stacked array are disposed adjacent and between substantially fast axis collimated outputs of emitter bars of the second stacked array with the fast axes of the emitters of the first stacked array substantially aligned with the fast axes of the emitters of the second stacked array;
- a polarization beam combiner having an input axis aligned with an output axis of the lateral beam interleaver and configured to fold the interleaved emission arrays of the first and second stacked arrays in a slow axis direction so as to reduce the overall beam size and increase the overall beam intensity;
- and
- focusing optics aligned with an output axis of the polarization beam combiner.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.