New Focus, Inc.

Bookham Technology Limited

Guangzhi Z Zhang

Murray Keith Reed

Carter F Hand

Alejandro Dario Farinas

Andrew C Davidson

I-Fan Wu

Weizhi Wang

Mark Wippich

Lam Thanh Le

Wade Wai-Chung Tang

David Robinson

A tunable laser comprising: a foundation including a first side and an oppositely facing second side and including a hole extending from the first side to the second side; a tuning assembly including a base, a fine tuning arm and a rotational flex bearing disposed adjacent the first side of the foundation; wherein the base is disposed adjacent to the first side of the foundation; wherein one end of the flex bearing is secured to the base; wherein the other end of the flex bearing is secured to the fine tuning arm; wherein a portion of the fine tuning arm extends at least partially into the hole; an external cavity laser including a gain medium, a dispersion medium and a reflective member disposed adjacent to the second side of the foundation; wherein the gain medium and the dispersion medium grating are secured in a fixed relation relative to the each other; wherein the reflective member is secured to the portion of the arm extending into the hole; and a piezoelectric device with one end secured to the base and another end secured to the arm.

Piezoelectric-tuned external cavity laser

A laser apparatus and method that provide for suppression of source spontaneous emission (SSE) and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light in laser output with minimal intracavity loss. The apparatus comprises a gain medium emitting a light beam, a wavelength element positioned in the light beam, and a non-reciprocal pickoff positioned in the light beam between the gain medium and wavelength element. The non-reciprocal pickoff may comprise a polarization-dependent beam splitter and a non-reciprocal polarization rotator positioned in the light beam before the wavelength selection element. The non-reciprocal pickoff may further comprise a reciprocal polarization rotator positioned in the light beam after the polarization-dependent beam splitter. The method may comprise emitting a light beam from a gain medium outward along an optical path, allowing the outward light beam to interact with a tunable element, returning a spectrally cleaned light beam along the optical path to the gain medium from the tunable element, and non-reciprocally picking off a portion of the returning, spectrally cleaned light beam from the optical path and directing the portion along an output path.

External cavity laser with high spectral purity output

A laser apparatus and method with compact cavity design that provides suppression of source spontaneous emission (SSE) and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light with minimal loss. The laser comprises a gain medium emitting a light beam along an optical path, a tuning element positioned in the optical path and configured feed back light of a selected wavelength to the gain medium and configured to define a first output beam directed along a first output path, a partial reflector located in the optical path and positioned to create a second output beam directed along a second output path substantially parallel to the first output path; and having a spontaneous emission component that is spatially separated from the selected wavelength. The second output beam can be coupled into optical fiber and produce a coherent light source with high spectral purity and tunable wavelengths.

Tunable laser with suppression of spontaneous emission

Disclosed is an external cavity diode laser system that includes a dispersion unit; a gain element producing coherent light incident upon the dispersion unit; and the dispersion unit dispersing the incident coherent light into dispersed light, the dispersed light comprising a reflected diffraction beam and at least one of angularly-separated source spontaneous emission or angularly-separated amplified spontaneous emission; a guiding dispersion unit that guides the dispersed light diffracted upon it from the dispersion unit while maintaining an angular separation between the reflected diffraction beam and at least one of angularly-separated source spontaneous emission or angularly-separated amplified spontaneous emission; and a physical filtering device that physically filters the reflected diffraction beam from the spatially separated at least one of angularly-separated source spontaneous emission or angularly-separated amplified spontaneous emission guided to the physical filtering device by the guiding unit to produce a low-noise laser beam. Also disclosed are methods relating to producing low-noise laser beams.

Continuously grating-tuned external cavity laser with automatic suppression of source spontaneous emission and amplified spontaneous emission

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Guangzhi Z Zhang