US 9,431,789 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for fabrication of controlled chirp gratings

AssigneeStc.Unm

InventorsSteven R. J. Brueck, Xiang He, Steve Benoit

Life of this patent

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Abstract

In some aspects of the present application, an apparatus for producing an interference pattern on a photosensitive portion formed on a surface of a sample is disclosed. The apparatus can include an optical system for providing interference between two coherent spherical wavefronts impinging on a thin-film photosensitive material formed on a surface of a sample, wherein a plane of the surface normal of the sample is arranged at an angle with respect to a plane defined by center propagation vectors of the two coherent spherical wavefronts; and one or more actuating elements operable to actuate one or more optical elements in the optical system, the sample, or both the one or more optical elements and the sample in one or more degrees of freedom to control a relative magnitude of a longitudinal and a transverse chirp of the interference pattern.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A tunable laser device comprising:

a chirped distributed feedback (DFB) grating disposed over an area of a laser structure, wherein the chirped DFB grating comprises a grating pitch having grating lines that varies across the area of the DFB grating and is characterized by both longitudinal and transverse chirp parameter;
and
a pump laser disposed to provide a pump beam illumination in a sub-area with respect to the area covered by the chirped DFB grating, wherein the sub-area is arranged in a stripe geometry with a long axis of the pump stripe essentially perpendicular to each of the grating lines of the chirped DFB grating, the position of the sub-area being changed to provide for continuous tuning of a lasing emission wavelength from the optically pumped laser structure;
wherein the extent of the longitudinal chirp across the length of the sub-area stripe is comparable to or less than the bandwidth of the stop-band produced by a fixed pitch grating of comparable depth and duty cycle to the chirped DFB grating.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/540,604Filed 13 Nov 2014 · division
Priority: 3 May 2012
Published: US 2015/0207290 A123 Jul 2015
Granted: 30 Aug 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

H01S 3/1022
By controlling the active medium, e.g. by controlling the processes or apparatus for excitation: by controlling the optical pumping
H01S 3/08009
Incorporating a dispersive element, e.g. a prism for wavelength selection: using a diffraction grating
H01S 5/1231
The resonator having a periodic structure, e.g. in distributed feedback [DFB] lasers: grating growth or overgrowth details
H01S 5/125
The resonator having a periodic structure, e.g. in distributed feedback [DFB] lasers: distributed Bragg reflector [DBR] lasers

Family

Application61/642,403Us provisional application · filed 3 May 2012
Application13/843,332Parent of this division · filed 15 Mar 2013
US 2015/0207290 A1Pre-grant publication · published 23 Jul 2015
US 8,908,724 B1Parent of this division
US 9,431,789 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.