Electrically-pumped semiconductor zigzag extended cavity surface emitting lasers and superluminescent LEDs

A semiconductor zigzag external cavity surface emitting laser, comprising:

• a chip including at least two regenerative gain elements disposed proximate a planar layer boundary of the chip;
• wherein the regenerative gain element having a p-n junction including an electrically pumped gain region and at least one reflector;
• the chip including a substrate layer region including at least one layer, the substrate layer region being substantially transparent at a wavelength of the optical mode with the substrate region including a reflective surface parallel to and spaced apart from the planar layer boundary associated with the at least two regenerative gain elements;
• at least one optical entrance/exit surface of the chip to couple light into the chip in a zigzag path via a sequence of reflections between the reflective surface of the substrate region and the reflectors of each regenerative gain element;
• at least one external optical element to form an external cavity providing optical feedback back into the chip and to control transverse optical mode characteristics of the optical mode;
• at least one of the regenerative gain elements operable as a forward biased p-n junction to provide optical gain and at least one of the regenerative gain elements operable as a reverse-biased p-n junction to modulate the loss of the laser.

A semiconductor zigzag external cavity surface emitting laser, comprising:

• a chip including at least two electrically pumped regenerative gain elements disposed proximate a planar layer boundary of the chip;
• wherein the regenerative semiconductor gain element(s) having a p-n junction mesa to provide current confinement and spatial mode control, a gain region and at least one reflector;
• the chip including a substrate layer region including at least one layer, the substrate layer region being substantially transparent at a wavelength of the optical mode with the substrate region including a reflective surface parallel to and spaced apart from the planar layer boundary associated with the at least two regenerative gain elements;
• at least one optical entrance/exit surface of the chip to couple light into the chip in a zigzag path via a sequence of reflections between the reflective surface of the substrate region and the reflectors of each regenerative gain element;
• at least one external optical element to form an external cavity providing optical feedback back into the chip and to control transverse optical mode characteristics of the optical mode;
• the sequence of reflections on the reflective surface providing polarization discrimination to generate a linear polarization;
• the zigzag path through the regenerative gain elements substantially canceling the effects of the thermal lensing within individual regenerative gain elements;
• each individual regenerative gain element lacking sufficient gain and feedback to operate as an individual laser with the lasing mode operating from the cumulative gain of the regenerative gain elements.

A Short wavelength semiconductor zigzag external cavity surface emitting laser, comprising:

• the chip including at least two electrically pumped regenerative semiconductor gain elements disposed proximate a planar layer boundary;
• wherein the regenerative semiconductor gain element(s) having a p-n junction mesa to provide current confinement and spatial mode control, an active gain region formed from a GaN based material to provide gain at a preselected wavelength in the range of 0.3-0.5 μm emission wavelength, and at least one reflector;
• the chip including a substrate layer region having at least one layer selected from the group consisting of sapphire or a GaN based compound, the substrate layer region being substantially transparent at a wavelength of the optical mode and including a reflective surface parallel to and spaced apart from the planar boundary or the at least two regenerative gain elements;
• at least one optical entrance/exit surface of the chip to couple light into the chip in a zigzag path via a sequence of reflections between the reflective surface of the substrate region and the reflectors of each regenerative gain element with the zigzag path;
• at least one external optical element to form an external cavity providing optical feedback back into the chip and to control transverse optical mode characteristics of the optical mode;
• the sequence of reflections on the reflective surface providing polarization discrimination to generate a linear polarization;
• the zigzag path through the regenerative gain elements substantially canceling the effects of the thermal lensing within individual regenerative gain elements;
• each individual regenerative gain element lacking sufficient gain and feedback to operate as an individual laser with the lasing mode operating from the cumulative gain of the regenerative gain elements.