Trw Limited

Gary L Peterson

Dan Botez

Luke J Mawst

Michael Jansen

Jane J Yang

Jaroslava Z Wilcox

William W Simmons

A semiconductor laser array of antiguides having a large number of antiguide elements to provide relatively high optical power output with a high degree of coherence and array mode discrimination. The antiguide elements are grouped into array cells that are separated by interarray regions having a width and refractive index selected to produce a resonance condition in the 0.degree.-phase-shift array mode. Each array cell is also designed to operate in the resonant condition, and losses in the interarray regions discriminate against modes other than the 0.degree.-phase-shift mode. The entire group of cells operates as a high-power, coherent ensemble, without the degradation of mode discrimination and beam quality usually associated with large numbers of waveguide elements.

Semiconductor laser arrays using leaky wave interarray coupling

A semiconductor laser array with features providing good beam quality at high powers, first by employing a laterally unguided diffraction region in which light from a set of waveguides is re-imaged in accordance with the Talbot effect and two arrays of waveguides may be used to provide a spatial filtering effect to select a desired array mode. This provides a laser array with increased power per unit solid angle, and with additional advantages of ability to scale the device up to larger arrays, ability to control the electrical excitation of the device for better optimization, and improved modal discrimination. A second aspect of the invention is the use of a resonance condition in an antiguide array, to produce a uniform near-field intensity pattern and improved coupling and device coherence. This resonance structure may be combined with the Talbot-effect structure to suppress the out-of-phase mode, or the out-of-phase mode may be suppressed by other means, such as by introducing interelement radiation losses or absorption losses in the antiguide array.

Semiconductor laser array having high power and high beam quality

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Long Beach, CA, United States of America

Gary L Peterson