Iolon, Inc.

Howard S Lee

Karl Arnold Belser

Douglas W Anthon

Man Cheung

Stephen J Hrinya

Alan A Fennema

Alexander Tselikov

Jill D Berger

Gabor G Szita

An apparatus and method for controlling the phase of a tunable laser is provided. Stabilization of the mode of a laser beam is provided as the laser is tuned to a target frequency. For one embodiment, a laser generates a reference beam and an output beam. The power of each of beam is measured by optical detectors, and a ratio thereof is utilized to detect when a mode hop occurs as the laser is coarsely tuned. The average of the pre and post mode hop ratios is utilized as a control setpoint while finely tuning the laser to the target frequency. Wavelength lockers, optical power dividers and optical detectors are utilized to determine power levels of the reference and output beams while also monitoring frequency characteristics thereof. A control unit utilizes the outputs from the wavelength locker to control the operation of the extended cavity laser during and after tuning.

Apparatus and method for phase control of tunable external cavity lasers

A system and method for efficient coupling between optical elements comprises a memory containing an alignment module configured to align a light beam with an optical element to maximize coupling efficiency, and a processor coupled to the memory to control the alignment module. A position sensitive device indirectly senses a position of the light beam on the optical element and sends the position to the processor. The alignment module directly measures coupling efficiency where the light beam contacts the optical element. The alignment module identifies a direction of increasing coupling efficiency and aligns the light beam with the optical element along that direction until maximum coupling efficiency is achieved.

System and method for efficient coupling between optical elements

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Howard S Lee