Tuneable laser

• US 20050259699A1
• Filed: 05/15/2003
• Published: 11/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bookham Incorporated (Oclaro (North America), Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Oclaro Technology Company Limited (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Zakhleniuk, Nickolay, Holden, Anthony James
• Application Number:
  US10/514,666
• Publication Number:
  US 20050259699A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 372/20
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 10/00 Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 20/00 Nanooptics, e.g. quantum optics or photonic crystals
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/06256 with DBR-structure
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/3412 quantum box or quantum dash

Abstract

A tuneable laser including a light creating section to generate light and a tuneable section formed of a semiconductor material which utilises the current injection free electron plasma effect to achieve a change in the refractive index of the material, wherein the tuneable section has a plurality of quantum dots having enhanced polarsability compared to the bulk semiconductor material surrounding the quantum dots.

Claims

1. A tuneable laser, comprising a light creating section to generate light and a tuneable section formed of a semiconductor material which utilizes a current injection free electron plasma effect to achieve a change in a refractive index of the material, wherein the tuneable section has a plurality of quantum dots having enhanced polarisability compared to the semiconductor material surrounding the quantum dots.

2. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tuneable section is the tuning section of the laser.

3. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the tuning section comprises a waveguide and a material of the waveguide includes a plurality of quantum dots.

4. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the tuneable section comprises a distributed Bragg reflector.

5. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 4, wherein the distributed Bragg reflector is formed between two layers of different refractive indices and a plurality of quantum dots is provided in one of the layers between which the Bragg grating is formed.

6. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a phase change section, wherein the phase change section is a tuneable section.

7. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the semiconductor material is a III-V semiconductor material.

8. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 7, wherein the III-V semiconductor material is based on a system selected from one of GaAs, InAs based materials and InP based materials.

9. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the laser is a three or four section laser, or has more than four sections.

10. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantum dots are self-assembled quantum dots.

11. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 10, wherein the self-assembled quantum dots are formed of an InAs based material in a host GaAs based semiconductor material.

12. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 11, wherein the host material is formed on a GaAs substrate.

13. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 10, wherein the self-assembled quantum dots are formed of an InGaAs based material in a host GaAs based semiconductor material.

14. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 13, wherein the host material is formed on a GaAs substrate.

15. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 10, wherein the self-assembled quantum dots are formed of an InAs based material in a host InGaAsP based semiconductor material.

16. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 15, wherein the host material is formed on an InP substrate.

17. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 10, wherein the self-assembled quantum dots are formed of an InGaAs based material in a host InGaAsP based semiconductor material.

18. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 17, wherein the host material is formed on an InP substrate.

19. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein any the quantum dots are formed by a chemical etching process.

20. A tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of layers of quantum dots.

21. A method of operating a tuneable laser as claimed in claim 1, wherein the laser has a forward bias with a p-layer of the laser connected positively and an n-layer connected negatively.