Np Photonics, Inc.

Ping Li

Shibin Jiang

Jihong Geng

Michael J Little

Yushi Kaneda

Christine Spiegelberg

Thomas S Tyrie

William P Eaton

Sean Staines

Chih-Jen Chi

Ronald Pollock

Harry Melkonian

Ik Joon Song

A short laser cavity (up to 30 cm in length) comprising a free-space tunable MEMS Fabry-Perot filter, a collimating lens and a section of erbium-doped phosphate gain fiber (2-25 cm) is formed between a pair of broadband reflectors. The cavity is optically pumped to excite the erbium ions and provide gain, which establishes an initial longitudinal mode structure that spans the C-band with a mode spacing of at least 0.3 GHz and a roundtrip unsaturated gain of at least 8 dB over the tuning range. A controller tunes the MEMS filter, which has a filter function whose spectral width is at most ten and preferably less than four times the longitudinal mode spacing, to align its transmission maxima to one of a plurality of discrete output wavelengths that span the C-band. A thermal control element adjusts the longitudinal mode structure to align a single mode with the transmission maxima of the filter. Because the spectral width of the filter function is narrow, laser emission will be limited to a single longitudinal mode.

Erbium-doped phosphate-glass tunable single-mode fiber laser using a tunable fabry-perot filter

The present invention provides method of making mechanisms in which the relative locations of elements are maintained during manufacturing. The methods according to the present invention can be used to make a variety of devices, including tunable optical devices. The methods include displaceably attaching an island (support) to a frame with a non-rigid material.

Methods of making mechanisms in which relative locations of elements are maintained during manufacturing

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Diamond Bar, CA, United States of America

Ping Li