Mode-selective facet layer for pump laser

• US 6,647,046 B1
• Filed: 11/23/1999
• Issued: 11/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Thorlabs Quantum Electronics, Inc. (Thorlabs Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corning Lasertron, Inc. (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: Salvatore, Randal A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Leung, Quyen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jackson, Cornelius H
• Application Number:
  US09/448,046
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 372/3, 372/6, 372/49, 372/69, 372/70, 372/71, 372/72, 372/75, 372/19, 372/98, 372/99
• US Class Current: 372/49.01
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 2302/00 Amplification / lasing wavelength
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/094 by coherent light
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/028 Coatings ; Treatment of the laser facets, e.g. etching, passivation layers or reflecting layers
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0287 Facet reflectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/1025 Extended cavities
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/141 using a wavelength selective device, e.g. a grating or etalon H01S5/146 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/20 Structure or shape of the semiconductor body to guide the optical wave ; Confining structures perpendicular to the optical axis, e.g. index or gain guiding, stripe geometry, broad area lasers, gain tailoring, transverse or lateral reflectors, special cladding structures, MQW barrier reflection layers

Abstract

A semiconductor pump laser comprises a ridge waveguide electro-optical structure, which converts a ridge injection current into light and an integrated wavelength selective facet reflector. This reflector controls the longitudinal modal operation of the pump laser. Specifically, the reflector comprises a first reflective structure for reflecting light to return through the ridge waveguide electro-optical structure. A second reflective structure provides wavelength-selective reflectivity when operating in combination with the first reflective structure. In other words, the phase of light reflected from the first and second reflective structures is such that the net reflectivity of the facet is wavelength selective, or favors certain wavelengths over other wavelengths.

Claims

1. A semiconductor pump laser, comprising:

an electro-optical ridge waveguide that converts a ridge injection current into light in an active layer having a material gin curve and integral front and rear facets arranged to reflect light back and forth in a resonant Fabry-Perot cavity through the active layer for lasing in a wide band of wavelengths, including a desired narrow lasing frequency band, within the material gain curve for providing a longitudinal modal operation of the pump laser; and

a wavelength selective facet reflector integrated into one of the front and rear facets of the waveguide, the wavelength selective facet reflector comprising an anti-resonant etalon, the anti-resonant etalon stabilizing longitudinal modal operation of the pump laser to the desired narrow lasing frequency band, wherein the anti-resonant etalon having a thickness and other characteristics precisely controlled for maximizing reflectivity an minimizing transmission at the desired narrow lasing frequency band, anti-resonant etalon is optically coupled to the active layer to modify round-trip gain of the resonant cavity in the active layer, wherein the anti-resonant etalon is selected to enhance lasing in the desired narrow lasing frequency band by feeding-back reflectivity to increase the round-trip cavity gain and to suppress lasing at other wavelengths within the material gain curve by increasing the round-trip cavity loss outside of the desired narrow lasing frequency band.

2. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the anti-resonant etalon integrated into the rear facet comprises a single layer having a thickness that is an odd multiple of quarterwavelenghs (λ

₀/4n_e).

3. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the anti-resonant etalon integrated into the front facet comprises a single layer having a thickness that is an even multiple of quarterwavelenghs (λ

₀/4n_e).

4. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the pump laser optically pumps a fiber amplifier in a dense wavelength division multiplexed system, one of the front and rear facets of the waveguide having the wavelength selective facet reflector as a first reflective structure for providing modal stability to reduce wavelength shifts of the pump laser in the wide band of waveless of about 16 nm by allowing a second reflective structure in one of the front and rear facets to favor lasing in the desired narrow lasing frequency band by providing out-of-phase reflection with the first reflective structure for increasing the round-trip cavity loss outside of the desired narrow lasing frequency band.

5. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the ridge waveguide of the electro-optical structure is formed only in an upper cladding layer to yield a weakly guided laser device.

6. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 4, wherein the second reflective structure has a wavelength selective reflectivity for providing wavelength control to +/−

2 nm to a predetermined wavelength in the desired narrow lasing frequency band.

7. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the facet reflector comprises a first reflective structure for reflecting light to return through the ridge waveguide electro-optical structure and a second reflective structure comprising the anti-resonant etalon for providing wavelength selective reflectivity in combination with the first reflective structure.

8. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 7, wherein the total thickness of the first and second reflective structures is less than 100 micrometers.

9. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 7, wherein the total thickness of the first and second reflective structures is between 3 and 20 micrometers.

10. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 7, wherein the fist reflective structure is located on a rear facet of the pump laser and comprises six multiple quarter-wave layers of alternating low and high index materials.

11. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 7, wherein the first reflective structure is located on a rear facet of the pump laser and comprises multiple quarter-wave layers of alternating low and high index materials.

12. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 11, wherein the second reflective structure comprises a relatively thick layer.

13. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 11, wherein the second reflective structure comprises a layer of 10-60 wavelengths in thickness.

14. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 11, wherein the second reflective structure comprises only a single layer with no subsequent reflective layers.

15. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the rear facet, has a reflectivity of greater than 75% at the wavelength of operation and the front facet has between 3-10% reflectivity at the wavelength of operation.

16. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 15, wherein the front facet has a reflectivity of 3-5% at the wavelength of operation.

17. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 16, wherein the front facet has a nominal reflectivity of about 4% at the wavelength of operation.

18. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein the facet reflector is on the front of the pump laser and the index steps are small so that power reflectivity is less than 15%.

19. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 18, wherein the facet reflector is between 3 μ

m and 30 μ

m thick.

20. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 18, wherein the facet reflector is between 3 and 30 wavelengths thick.

21. A semiconductor laser as described in claim 1, wherein an etalon structure is deposited on both the front and rear facets.

22. A semiconductor 980 nanometers pump laser having increased longitudinal modal stability for optically pumping a fiber amplifier in a dense wavelength division multiplexed system with reduced spectral shifting, the pump laser comprising:

an electro-optical ridge waveguide that converts a ridge injection current into light; and

a wavelength-selective rear facet reflector integrated into the waveguide which controls longitudinal modal operation of the pump laser, the rear facet reflector comprising a first reflective element for reflecting light to return through the ridge waveguide and a second reflective element comprising an anti-resonant etalon for providing a wavelength selective reflectivity in combination with the first reflective element, wherein the first reflective element comprises multiple quarter-wave layers of alternating low and high index materials and the second reflective element comprises a relatively thick layer of 10-60 wavelength in thickness for constraining the laser to lase only a desired narrow lasing frequency band by reflecting light in a desired wide lasing frequency band containing the desired narrow lasing frequency band.

23. A semiconductor 980 nanometers pump laser having increased longitudinal modal stability for optically pumping a fiber amplifier in a dense wavelength division multiplexed system with reduced spectral shifting, the pump laser comprising:

an electro-optical ridge waveguide that converts a ridge injection current into light; and

a wavelength-selective front facet reflector integrated into the waveguide comprising an anti-resonant etalon controlling longitudinal modal operation of the pump laser, which is 3-30 wavelengths in thickness for constraining the laser to laser only in a desired narrow lasing frequency band by reflecting light in a desired wide lasing frequency band containing the desired narrow lasing frequency band.