Tunable segmented distributed bragg reflector for linear optical amplifier
First Claim
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1. An optical amplifier comprising:
- a substrate;
a first Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) stack arranged over the substrate, the first DBR stack including a plurality of mirror pairs each having a first layer and a second layer, wherein a duty cycle of each mirror pair is selected such that a phase shift of the first layer is less than or greater than 90 degrees;
an active region formed on the first DBR stack, wherein the duty cycle of each mirror pair is selected such that an amplifier mode does not couple to the first DBR stack; and
a second DBR stack formed on the active region.
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Abstract
Systems and methods for tuning a DBR stack for an optical amplifier. The DBR layers in a mirror of the optical amplifier have a duty cycle that can be altered to tune a location of a channel drop in a gain spectrum. In addition to changing the duty cycle, the DBR stacks can be segmented. The segmented DBR stacks and/or the selected duty cycle tunes a location of a channel drop outside of a range of wavelengths of interest.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. An optical amplifier comprising:
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a substrate;
a first Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) stack arranged over the substrate, the first DBR stack including a plurality of mirror pairs each having a first layer and a second layer, wherein a duty cycle of each mirror pair is selected such that a phase shift of the first layer is less than or greater than 90 degrees;
an active region formed on the first DBR stack, wherein the duty cycle of each mirror pair is selected such that an amplifier mode does not couple to the first DBR stack; and
a second DBR stack formed on the active region. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An optical amplifier comprising:
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a substrate;
a first DBR stack formed on the substrate, wherein the first DBR stack comprises;
a plurality of mirror pair segments, each mirror pair in each mirror pair segment imparting a phase shift of 180 degrees and each mirror pair having a duty cycle such that a first layer of each mirror pair imparts a phase shift of less than 90 degrees and a second layer of each mirror pair imparts a phase shift of greater than 90 degrees;
an active region formed on the first DBR stack, wherein the duty cycle of each mirror pair is configured to tune a channel drop outside of a particular range of wavelengths; and
a second DBR stack formed on the active region. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for tuning a location of a channel drop in a gain spectrum of an optical amplifier, the method comprising:
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selecting a duty cycle for a plurality of mirror pairs such that a channel drop falls outside of a selected wavelength range;
forming first DBR layer that includes a plurality of mirror segments on a substrate, each mirror segment including one or more of the plurality of mirror pairs and a spacer layer;
forming an active region on the plurality of mirror segments; and
forming a second DBR stack on the active region. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An optical amplifier comprising:
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a substrate;
a first DBR stack formed on the substrate, wherein the first DBR stack comprises;
a plurality of mirror segments;
one or more mirror pairs in each mirror segment, wherein each mirror pair has a duty cycle such that a phase shift for each mirror pair is 180 degrees while the phase shift for one layer in at least one mirror pair is less than 90 degrees; and
one or more spacer layers formed between the plurality of mirror segments;
an active region formed on the first DBR stack; and
a second DBR stack formed on the active region. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification