Embodiments of an optical modulator device are described. An example optical modulator includes a ridge laser configured to emit light, a ridge waveguide configured to transition between a transparent state and an absorbing state, and a waveguide tap formed between the ridge laser and the ridge waveguide. The waveguide tap is configured to optically couple a fraction of light generated in the ridge laser to the ridge waveguide. In the transparent state of the ridge waveguide, the ridge waveguide is configured to output the fraction of light for interference with light emitted from the ridge laser. In the absorbing state of the ridge waveguide, the ridge waveguide is configured to absorb the fraction of light. Depending upon whether the fraction of light is output from the ridge waveguide for interference, the output power of the laser seen at the far-field of the optical modulator can be modulated for data communications.

Provided is a semiconductor laser device including a plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC that are capable of being independently driven, and a spatial light modulator SLM that is optically coupled to a group of the plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC. Each of the semiconductor laser units includes a pair of clad layers having an active layer 4 interposed therebetween, and a diffractive lattice layer 6 that is optically coupled to the active layer 4. The semiconductor laser device includes a wavelength plate 26 that is disposed between a group of the active layers 4 of the plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC and a reflection film 23, and a polarizing plate 27 that is disposed between the group of the active layers 4 of the plurality of semiconductor laser units LDC and a light emitting surface.

A soldering system that determines soldering quality of elements relative to a housing at the moment of soldering semiconductor laser elements. A soldering device that performs soldering of a semiconductor laser element to a semiconductor laser module, a robot that conveys the module, a camera, and a control device that controls the robot and camera based on imaging output of the camera. The robot conveys the module and changes the position and posture of the camera. The camera images the module. The control device calculates the position of the semiconductor laser element based on the imaging output, calculates parallelism between the housing of the module and the semiconductor laser element based on the change in light intensity related to the imaging output when changing the relative position between the camera and the subject, and determines the quality of soldering of the semiconductor laser element based on the position and parallelism.

This semiconductor laser device includes a semiconductor laser chip and a spatial light modulator SLM optically coupled to the semiconductor laser chip. The semiconductor laser chip LDC includes an active layer 4, a pair of cladding layers 2 and 7 sandwiching the active layer 4, a diffraction grating layer 6 optically coupled to the active layer 4, and a drive electrode E3 that is disposed between the cladding layer 2 and the spatial light modulator SLM and supplies an electric current to the active layer 4, and the drive electrode E3 is positioned within an XY plane and has a plurality of openings as viewed from a Z-axis direction and has a non-periodic structure.

A lidar device comprises: a laser emitting unit for including a plurality of VCSEL elements emitting a laser beam; a metasurface for including a plurality of beam steering cells arranged in a form of two-dimensional array by a row direction and a column direction, wherein the plurality of beam steering cells guide the laser beam by using nanopillars; wherein the nanopillars included in the plurality of beam steering cells form a subwavelength pattern, wherein the increase of an attribute related to at least one of the width, height, and number per unit length of the nanopillars is repetitive along the direction from the center of the metasurface to the position of the row corresponding to the plurality of beam steering cells.

A beam source includes a laser diode having an emission surface for emitting a divergent beam, a carrier structure on which the laser diode is arranged such that the beam has, immediately downstream of the emission surface, a direction component parallel to a surface of the carrier structure that faces the laser diode, and a reflection prism with a transparent prism material having a refractive index n.sub.p1.5. The diode and the prism are arranged relative to each other such that the beam from the diode is incident downstream on an entrance surface of the prism, travels through the prism material with a reduced aperture angle, and in the process is reflected away from the carrier structure at a reflection surface of the prism. The emission surface of the diode and the entrance surface of the prism have a distance from one another of at most 0.5 mm.

A two-dimensional photonic crystal laser includes: an active layer; a two-dimensional photonic crystal layer provided on one face of the active layer, in which modified refractive index regions are periodically and two-dimensionally disposed in a base member of a plate shape, the modified refractive index regions having a refractive index different from the refractive index of the base member; and a first electrode and a second electrode provided so as to sandwich the active layer and the two-dimensional photonic crystal layer in a stacking direction; in which the first electrode has an opening, and at least a part of a projection of a circumscribed circle of the second electrode onto the first electrode is located in the opening, and at least a part of periphery of the opening of the first electrode protrudes into the projection.