A system and method for tuning and infrared source laser in the Mid-IR wavelength range. The system and method comprising, at least, a plurality of individually tunable emitters, each emitter emitting a beam having a unique wavelength, a grating, a mirror positioned after the grating to receive at least one refracted order of light of at least one beam and to redirect the beam back towards the grating, and a micro-electro-mechanical systems device containing a plurality of adjustable micro-mirrors.

A photoacoustic system includes a semiconductor substrate including a hollow volume and a window extending in vertical alignment with a part of the hollow volume, and a surface emitting device including a waveguide and a diffraction grating, the waveguide having an upper face and a lower face, the lower face being disposed on the window, the diffraction grating being disposed on the upper face or on the lower face.

A method of fabricating an acousto-optic waveguide that includes a waveguide cladding surrounding an optical core is disclosed. The method comprises providing a wafer substrate; depositing an initial amount of a first material over an upper surface of the wafer substrate to form a partial cladding layer; depositing a second material over the partial cladding layer to form an optical layer; removing portions of the second material of the optical layer to expose portions of the partial cladding layer and form an optical core comprising the remaining second material; and depositing an additional amount of the first material over the optical core and the exposed portions of the partial cladding layer to form a full cladding layer that surrounds the optical core. A relative concentration of components of the first material is adjusted to provide Brillouin gain spectral position control of the waveguide cladding to tune the acousto-optic waveguide.

A dielectric-grating waveguide free-electron laser device generating coherent or laser-like radiation is provided. An electron beam propagates next to a dielectric waveguide with a built-in grating structure to generate highly confined coherent or laser-like radiation in the waveguide through the Bragg resonance, the backward-wave resonance, or the Fabry-Perot resonance provided by the grating-waveguide structure. The dielectric-grating waveguide can be made of linear optical materials or nonlinear optical materials or combination of linear and nonlinear optical materials to enable versatile functionalities, such as laser generation, laser-wavelength conversion, and laser signal processing. Owing to the build-up of the laser modes inside the dielectric waveguide, coherent or laser-like Smith-Purcell radiation is also generated above the grating via coupling and bunching of the electrons with the surface mode fields.

A tunable laser has a first mirror, a second mirror, a gain medium, and a directional coupler. The first mirror and the second mirror form an optical resonator. The gain medium and the directional coupler are, at least partially, in an optical path of the optical resonator. The first mirror and the second mirror comprise binary super gratings. Both the first mirror and the second mirror have high reflectivity. The directional coupler provides an output coupler for the tunable laser.

A distributed reflector (DR) laser may include a distributed feedback (DFB) region and a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). The DFB region may have a length in a range from 30 micrometers (m) to 100 m and may include a DFB grating with a first kappa in a range from 100 cm.sup.1 to 150 cm.sup.1. The DBR region may be coupled end to end with the DFB region and may have a length in a range from 30-300 m. The DBR region may include a DBR grating with a second kappa in a range from 150 cm.sup.1 to 200 cm.sup.1. The DR laser may additionally include a lasing mode and a p-p resonance frequency. The lasing mode may be at a long wavelength side of a peak of a DBR reflection profile of the DBR region. The p-p resonance frequency may be less than or equal to 70 GHz.

A photonic molecule laser is described that includes a photonic molecule waveguide coupled to a photonic molecule seeding source configured to deliver a plurality of photonic molecules. The photonic molecule waveguide includes a second dopant maintained at a population inverted state with an energy level transition corresponding to a second frequency that is an N-fold multiple of a first frequency and amplifies the number of photonic molecules via stimulated emission. The photonic molecule seeding source includes a waveguide with a first dopant maintained at a population inverted state with an energy level transition corresponding to the first frequency. A pump source is coupled to the waveguide configured to deliver a first frequency laser pulse with pulse coherence time less than the photonic molecules correlation time. Each photonic molecule includes a threshold bound state of N first frequency photons, and each photonic molecule has the second frequency.

A system and method for tuning and infrared source laser in the Mid-IR wavelength range. The system and method comprising, at least, a plurality of individually tunable emitters, each emitter emitting a beam having a unique wavelength, a grating, a mirror positioned after the grating to receive at least one refracted order of light of at least one beam and to redirect the beam back towards the grating, and a micro-electro-mechanical systems device containing a plurality of adjustable micro-mirrors.

A light source for an imaging system. The light source includes a microresonator laser array having opposing mirrors arranged substantially parallel to one another. A laser gain medium is between the opposing mirrors. An array of microrefractive elements is arranged to stabilize the microresonator. A pump laser's output is shaped by a lens that directs it toward the micro-resonator laser array. An output lens directs a plurality of laser beams from the microresonator laser array to be incoherently combined at an object to be illuminated.

A method of fabricating an acousto-optic waveguide that includes a waveguide cladding surrounding an optical core is disclosed. The method comprises providing a wafer substrate; depositing an initial amount of a first material over an upper surface of the wafer substrate to form a partial cladding layer; depositing a second material over the partial cladding layer to form an optical layer; removing portions of the second material of the optical layer to expose portions of the partial cladding layer and form an optical core comprising the remaining second material; and depositing an additional amount of the first material over the optical core and the exposed portions of the partial cladding layer to form a full cladding layer that surrounds the optical core. A relative concentration of components of the first material is adjusted to provide Brillouin gain spectral position control of the waveguide cladding to tune the acousto-optic waveguide.