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US 7,835,417 B2Granted
Narrow spectrum light source
AssigneeOctrolix BV
InventorsRene Gerrit Heideman, Edwin Jan Klein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method are disclosed for decreasing the spectral bandwidth of a semiconductor laser, such as a vertical cavity surface emitting laser.
Claims16
An apparatus comprising:
- a semiconductor laser that emits light, wherein the light comprises a plurality of spectral components that define a spectral bandwidth of the semiconductor laser;
- and
- a ring resonator that is optically coupled to the semiconductor laser, wherein:
- (a) the ring resonator comprises waveguides that include a waveguide core having an inner core of stoichiometric silicon oxide (SiO2) and an outer core of stoichiometric silicon nitride (Si3N4);
- (b) the ring resonator is dimensioned and arranged to selectively return an on-resonance spectral component, from the plurality of spectral components, to the semiconductor laser;
- and
- (c) the on-resonance spectral component is a desired operating wavelength of the semiconductor laser.
4 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (“VCSEL”) that emits light having a plurality of spectral components;
- a first ring resonator that is optically coupled to the VCSEL;
- a second ring resonator that is optically coupled to the first ring resonator and the VCSEL, wherein:
- (a) the first ring resonator is dimensioned and arranged to generate a plurality of on-resonance spectral components;
- (b) the second ring resonator is dimensioned and arranged to filter the plurality of on-resonance spectral components and selectively return one of the on-resonance spectral components to the VCSEL, which is a desired operating wavelength of the VCSEL;
- and
- the first ring resonator and the second ring resonator each comprise waveguides that include a waveguide core having an inner core of stoichiometric silicon oxide (SiO2) and an outer core of stoichiometric silicon nitride (Si3N4);
- a tuning element, wherein the tuning element is operable to change a wavelength of the on-resonance spectral component.
5 more elements
A method comprising:
- providing a ring resonator that is dimensioned and arranged to provide a suitable free spectral range and a resonant wavelength that corresponds to a desired output wavelength of a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (“VCSEL”), and wherein the ring resonator comprises waveguides that include a waveguide core having an inner core of stoichiometric silicon oxide (SiO2) and an outer core of stoichiometric silicon nitride (Si3N4);
- and
- optically coupling the output of the VCSEL to a ring resonator so that:
- (a) a spectral component of light that is emitted from the VCSEL that has a wavelength that is the same as a resonant wavelength of the ring resonator is returned to the VCSEL via operation of the ring resonator;
- and
- (b) spectral components of light that is emitted from the VCSEL that have a wavelength that is not the same as the resonant wavelength of the ring resonator are not returned to the VCSEL, thereby decreasing a spectral bandwidth of the output of the VCSEL.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.