Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Photop Aegis, Inc.

Rong Sun

Lionel Cooper Kimerling

Jurgen Michel

Michael Cahill

Ning-Ning Feng

A tunable laser includes an optical cavity comprising a first and second mirror. A gain medium is positioned in the optical cavity that generates stimulated emission in the optical cavity when biased. A thermally tunable optical filter is positioned in the optical cavity that is heated to a temperature that selects a desired optical mode of the optical cavity. A thermally tunable optical phase retarder is positioned in the optical cavity that is heated to a temperature which changes an optical path length in the optical cavity by an amount corresponding to a resonant frequency of the tunable optical filter so that a phase-matching condition of the optical cavity is shifted to the desired optical mode of the optical cavity selected by the thermally tunable optical filter.

Tunable Laser

The mode transforming structure includes a first waveguide structure. A slot waveguide region is coupled to the first waveguide structure. The slot waveguide region includes one or more complementary tapered pairs so near lossless transforming between the first waveguide structure and the slot waveguide region occurs so as to allow optical modes to be transferred between the first waveguide and the slot waveguide region.

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Rong Sun