Abstract:
A solid-state laser rod pumping module comprises a stack-type semiconductor laser including a plurality of bar-shaped (or rectangular) components that are stacked in a direction parallel to the axis of a solid-state laser rod, each of the plurality of bar-shaped components including a plurality of laser-light-emitting portions that are aligned and integrated in a direction orthogonal to the axis of the solid-state laser rod. The stack-type semiconductor laser has a large divergence angle in a longitudinal parallel to the axis of the solid-state laser rod. The pumping module further includes a semiconductor laser light focusing component for focusing laser light emitted out of the stack-type semiconductor laser, and a semiconductor laser light guiding component disposed in a diffusive reflection tube, for guiding the laser light focused and injected thereinto by the semiconductor laser light focusing component to an end portion thereof while substantially maintaining the length of one side of a cross section of the semiconductor laser light, which is running in a direction parallel to the direction in which the plurality of bar-shaped components are stacked, and for guiding the laser light toward the solid-state laser rod located within the diffusive reflection tube.
Abstract:
A photonic crystal amplifier that employs a photonic crystal gain medium for a telecommunications system. Pump light is coupled into the amplifier at one end of the gain medium and signal light is coupled into and out of the amplifier at an opposite end of the gain medium. The pump light input end includes a wavelength reflector that reflects the signal wavelengths of light, but transmits the pump wavelengths of light. The signal light input/output end includes a pump wavelength reflector that reflects the pump wavelengths back into the gain medium, but is transparent to the signal wavelengths. The diameter of the gain medium is relatively large, but only allows a single mode to propagate at the pump and signal wavelengths.
Abstract:
The object in an arrangement for pumping an anisotropic laser crystal is to reduce the influence of the destruction limit of the laser crystal on increased pump power density and, in this connection, to achieve improved beam quality and increased efficiency of a diode-pumped solid state laser. At the same time, the pump volume and cross-sectional area are to be kept as small as possible along a length of the crystal corresponding at least approximately to the absorption length. The arrangement operates with an asymmetric pump beam whose pump beam cross section has different dimensions perpendicular to one another and with a laser beam cross section which is adapted to this asymmetry. That axis of the crystallographic axes of the anisotropic laser crystal in whose direction the highest value of the crystal breaking limit exists is oriented along the greatest temperature gradient in the direction of the smaller dimension of the pump beam cross section.
Abstract:
An optically pumped solid-state laser includes a laser medium surrounded by a pumping radiation reflector having at least one opening for injecting into the pumping radiation reflector pumping radiation emitted by a pumping radiation source Disposed between the pumping radiation source and the laser medium is a beam guiding and/or beam shaping optical system that includes at least one optical element disposed inside the pumping radiation reflector in the beam path of the pumping radiation source, the optical element varying the power density distribution of at least a portion of the pumping radiation directed immediately onto the laser medium.
Abstract:
A noncollinear pumped solid state Raman laser or amplifier has a pump laser that transversely or noncollinearly pumps a solid state Raman gain material, with an intensity sufficient to produce a stimulated Raman laser output beam. The pump beam and the Raman beam are noncollinear when the Raman beam travels completely across the pump beam within the Raman gain material, or where the Raman beam completely separates physically, at some location in the pumped Raman gain material, from a virtual beam, which is collinear to the pump beam axis, and which has the same entrance spot size and beam divergence as the Raman beam. The device enhances the pump laser beam spatial homogenization to improve the wavefront smoothness and propagation performance from the pump beam to the Raman beam. Other configurations of the device have a plurality of mirrors, or prisms to fold the pump beam to cause the pump beam to pass through the Raman material a plurality of times, which increases the energy transferred from the pump beam to the Raman beam.
Abstract:
The invention is directed to optical devices comprising a solid-state structured glass substrate having at least one waveguide incorporated therein, particularly waveguides and lasers incorporating such structure. The invention is also directed to methods for modifying such devices and their properties. The waveguides and lasers of the invention provide advantageous high power and increased slope efficiency and find use, for example, in telecommunications applications.
Abstract:
The invention features an edge-emitting semiconductor signal laser having an active region to produce laser light. There is provided a semiconductor pump laser monolithically integrated with the edge-emitting signal laser. The pump laser includes a photon emissive active region to provide photopumping of the active region of the edge-emitting signal laser, thereby providing optical excitation of the active region of the signal laser.
Abstract:
An integrated photonic apparatus that includes a glass substrate having a major surface, wherein the glass substrate includes a plurality of regions, each region having a different index of refraction, including a first region having a first index of refraction and a second region having a second index of refraction lower than the first index of refraction, and a first waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the first waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an intrinsic index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the first waveguide passes through the first region and through the second region of the glass substrate.
Abstract:
Optical structures and method for producing tunable waveguide lasers. In one embodiment, a waveguide is defined within a glass substrate doped with a rare-earth element or elements by ion diffusion. Feedback elements such as mirrors or reflection gratings in the waveguide further define a laser-resonator cavity so that laser light is output from the waveguide when pumped optically or otherwise. Means are disclosed for varying the wavelengths reflected by the reflection gratings and varying the effective length of the resonator cavity to thereby tune the laser to a selected wavelength. Apparatus and method for integrating rare-earth doped lasers and optics on glass substrates. The invention includes a laser component formed from a glass substrate doped with a optically active lanthanides species with a plurality of waveguides defined by channels within the substrate. The laser component may constitute a monolithic array of individual waveguides in which the waveguides of the array form laser resonator cavities with differing resonance characteristics. The channels defining the waveguides are created by exposing a surface of the substrate to an ion-exchange solvent through a mask layer having a plurality of line apertures corresponding to the channels which are to be formed.
Abstract:
An integrated photonic apparatus that includes a glass substrate having a major surface, wherein the glass substrate includes a plurality of regions, each region having a different index of refraction, including a first region having a first index of refraction and a second region having a second index of refraction lower than the first index of refraction, and a first waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the first waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an intrinsic index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the first waveguide passes through the first region and through the second region of the glass substrate.