The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 14, 2010
Filed:
Nov. 05, 2007
Chris Watson, Ottawa, CA;
Kirill Pimenov, Ottawa, CA;
Valery Tolstikhin, Ottawa, CA;
Greg Letal, Ottawa, CA;
Ron Moore, Stittsville, CA;
Chris Watson, Ottawa, CA;
Kirill Pimenov, Ottawa, CA;
Valery Tolstikhin, Ottawa, CA;
Greg Letal, Ottawa, CA;
Ron Moore, Stittsville, CA;
Onechip Photonics Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, CA;
Abstract
The invention describes the method and apparatus for enhanced efficiency in a laterally-coupled distributed feedback (LC-DFB) laser. In a device featuring the effective ridge design, lateral confinement of the guided optical modes is provided by a surface etched grating, which also serves as a DFB element of the laser. Coupling and quantum efficiency of such a LC-DFB laser both improve with an increase of the lateral mode order. In accordance with this invention, a dramatic enhancement of the laser efficiency is achievable by designing it to operate in one of the higher order modes, notably the first order mode, while all the other lateral modes, including the zero order mode, are suppressed through gain-loss discrimination. In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, this enhanced efficiency technique is applied to the design of a single-mode LC-DFB laser suitable for a monolithic integration with other active and passive functional elements of photonic integrated circuits fabricated by using one-step epitaxial growth.