A semiconductor laser diode is disclosed. In an embodiment a semiconductor laser diode includes a first resonator and a second resonator, the first and second resonators having parallel resonator directions along a longitudinal direction and being monolithically integrated into the semiconductor laser diode, wherein the first resonator includes at least a part of a semiconductor layer sequence having an active layer and an active region configured to be electrically pumped to generate a first light, wherein the longitudinal direction is parallel to a main extension plane of the active layer, and wherein the second resonator has an active region with a laser-active material configured to be optically pumped by at least a part of the first light to produce a second light which is partially emitted outwards from the second resonator.

A system includes a master oscillator configured to generate a first optical beam and a beam controller configured to modify the first optical beam. The system also includes a PWG amplifier configured to receive the modified first optical beam and generate a second optical beam having a higher power than the first optical beam. The second optical beam has a power of at least about ten kilowatts. The PWG amplifier includes a single laser gain medium configured to generate the second optical beam. The system further includes a feedback loop configured to control the master oscillator, PWG amplifier, and beam controller. The feedback loop includes a laser controller. The laser controller may be configured to process wavefront information or power in bucket information associated with the second optical beam to control an adaptive optic or perform a back-propagation algorithm to provide wavefront correction at an output of the PWG amplifier.

In a planar waveguide laser device (1), a substrate (6) is joined to the upper surface of a waveguide (2). A recess (6a) having a chamfered shape is formed along an edge of an end facet of the substrate (6) on the side of the waveguide (2), the end facet being perpendicular to the direction of laser oscillation. An end facet of the waveguide (2) perpendicular to the oscillation direction of laser light is covered with a coating (7). A wraparound portion (7a) continuing from the coating (7) covers the upper surface of the waveguide (2) facing the recess (6a) of the substrate (6).

This disclosure provides planar waveguides with enhanced support and/or cooling. One or more endcaps could be disposed between coating/cladding layers at one or more ends of a core region, where the core region is doped with at least one active ion species and each endcap is not doped with any active ion species that creates substantial absorption at pump and signal wavelengths. A core region could include at least one crystal or crystalline material, and at least one cladding layer could include at least one glass. Different types of coolers could be disposed on or adjacent to different coating/cladding layers. Side claddings could be disposed on opposite sides of a planar waveguide, where the opposite sides represent longer sides of the waveguide. Endcaps and one or more coolers could be sealed to a housing, and coolant can flow through a substantially linear passageway along a length of the waveguide. One side of a planar waveguide could be uncooled.

An amplification waveguide device and an amplification beam steering apparatus are provided. The amplification beam steering apparatus includes a beam steerer configured to control emission directions of light beams output therefrom, a plurality of waveguides configured to guide the light beams output from the beam steerer, and a light amplifier configured to amplify the light beams traveling through the plurality of waveguides.

Systems and methods described herein provide a thermally compensated waveguide structure having a thermal index profile configured to correct thermal aberrations caused by temperature gradients in a fast axis direction and/or correct other forms of distortions in an output beam generated by the waveguide structure. The waveguide structure includes a core region, one or more cladding, and one or more heat sinks. A geometry of these portions with respect to each other can provide a cold refractive index profile such that a cold refractive index value of a portion of the core region is less than a cold refractive index value of at least one of the one or more cladding regions. Responsive to thermal compensation, the cold refractive index profile is modified, through addition of a thermal index profile, to form a hot index profile having attributes including good overlap of the fundamental mode with the gain profile and mode clean-up through gain discrimination against higher order modes.

A solid-state optical amplifier is described, having an active core and doped cladding in a single chip. An active optical core runs through a doped cladding in a structure formed on a substrate. A light emitting structure, such as an LED, is formed within and/or adjacent to the optical core. The cladding is doped, for example, with erbium or other rare-earth elements or metals. Several exemplary devices and methods of their formation are given.

An apparatus includes a PWG having a core region and a cladding layer. The amplifier is configured to receive pump light. The core region is configured to amplify an input beam using energy from the pump light to generate an amplified output beam. The apparatus also includes a cooling fluid configured to cool the core region. The cooling fluid has a lower refractive index than the core region and the cladding layer in order to support guiding of the input beam and pump light within the amplifier. The amplifier also includes first and second endcaps attached to opposite faces of the core region and cladding layer. The core region, cladding layer, and endcaps collectively form a monolithic fused structure. Each endcap has a major outer surface that is larger in area than a combined area of the faces of the core region and cladding layer to which the endcap is attached.

Examples of the present invention include integrated erbium-doped waveguide lasers designed for silicon photonic systems. In some examples, these lasers include laser cavities defined by distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) formed in silicon nitride-based waveguides. These DBRs may include grating features defined by wafer-scale immersion lithography, with an upper layer of erbium-doped aluminum oxide deposited as the final step in the fabrication process. The resulting inverted ridge-waveguide yields high optical intensity overlap with the active medium for both the 980 nm pump (89%) and 1.5 m laser (87%) wavelengths with a pump-laser intensity overlap of over 93%. The output powers can be 5 mW or higher and show lasing at widely-spaced wavelengths within both the C- and L-bands of the erbium gain spectrum (1536, 1561 and 1596 nm).

Disclosed is a planar waveguide including: a core (11) which is a flat plate through which light propagates; a cladding (12) which is a flat plate for reflecting the light in a state of being joined to an upper surface of the core (11); and a cladding (13) which is a flat plate for reflecting the light in a state of being joined to a lower surface of the core (11), in which each of the claddings (12) and (13) is a multilayer film in which multiple films made from different materials are layered. As a result, a material having a low index of refraction can be used as the material of the core (11), and the limit on materials usable as the material of the core (11) is relaxed.