High-power, phased-locked, laser arrays as disclosed herein utilize a system of optical elements that may be external to the laser oscillator array. Such an external optical system may achieve mutually coherent operation of all the emitters in a laser array, and coherent combination of the output of all the lasers in the array into a single beam. Such an “external gain harness” system may include: an optical lens/mirror system that mixes the output of all the emitters in the array; a holographic optical element that combines the output of all the lasers in the array, and an output coupler that selects a single path for the combined output and also selects a common operating frequency for all the coupled gain regions.

Laser Side Mode Suppression Ratio (SMSR) control is provided via a logic controller configured to measure an SMSR of a carrier wave upstream of a modulator and measure an Average Optical Power (AOP) of the carrier wave downstream of the modulator; transmit a bias voltage based on the SMSR and the AOP to a laser driver for a laser generating the carrier wave; and transmit an attenuation level based on the SMSR and the AOP to a Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA) upstream of the modulator. In various embodiments the attenuation level and bias voltage can rise or fall together, or one may rise and one may fall to ensure the output optical signal meets specified SMSR and AOP values.

An optical source is described. This optical source includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (with a semiconductor other than silicon) that provides an optical gain medium and that includes a reflector. Moreover the hybrid external cavity laser includes a photonic chip with: an optical waveguide that conveys an optical signal output by the semiconductor optical amplifier; and a ring resonator, having a resonance wavelength, which reflects at least a resonance wavelength in the optical signal, where the reflector and the ring resonator define an optical cavity. Furthermore, the photonic chip includes: a thermal-tuning mechanism that adjusts the resonance wavelength; a photo-detector that measures an optical power output by the ring resonator; and control logic that adjusts the temperature of the ring resonator based on the measured optical power to lock a cavity mode of the optical cavity to a carrier wavelength.

A distributed feedback plus reflection (DFB+R) laser includes an active section, a passive section, a low reflection (LR) mirror, and an etalon. The active section includes a distributed feedback (DFB) grating and is configured to operate in a lasing mode. The passive section is coupled end to end with the active section. The LR mirror is formed on or in the passive section. The etalon includes a portion of the DFB grating, the passive section, and the LR mirror. The lasing mode of the active section is aligned to a long wavelength edge of a reflection peak of the etalon.

A two-dimensional photonic crystal surface emitting laser capable of improving characteristics of light to be emitted, particularly optical output , which includes: a two-dimensional photonic crystal including a plate-shaped base member and modified refractive index regions where the modified refractive index regions have a refractive index different from that of the plate-shaped base member and are two-dimensionally and periodically arranged in the base member; an active layer provided on one side of the two-dimensional photonic crystal; and a first electrode and a second electrode provided sandwiching the two-dimensional photonic crystal and the active layer for supplying current to the active layer, where the second electrode covers a region equal to or wider than the first electrode, wherein the first electrode is formed so as to supply the current to the active layer with a different density depending on the in-plane position on the first electrode.

Provided is a tunable laser source including a plurality of optical waveguides, at least three optical resonators provided between the plurality of optical waveguides and optically coupled to the plurality of optical waveguides, the at least three optical resonators having different lengths, and at least one optical amplifier provided on at least one of the plurality of optical waveguides, wherein a ratio of a first length of a first optical resonator of the at least three optical resonators to a second length of a second optical resonator of the at least three optical resonators is not an integer.

The invention relates to a method for producing a semiconductor laser comprising the method steps: generating a lateral structure layer, at least in the material abrasion areas, a basic selection of the laser modes amplified or amplifiable through stimulated emission taking place via the lateral structure layer; and generating an optical element for defining the phasing of the amplified or amplifiable laser modes, the optical element being generated in such a manner that it has a distance d to an end of the lateral structure layer in the longitudinal direction of the waveguide ridge, distance d fulfilling the condition

[00001]$\min .Math.d-m.Math.\frac{{\lambda }_{eff}}{2}.Math.\le \frac{{\lambda }_{eff}}{4},$

being a natural number (m∈) and λ.sub.eff being the effective wavelength in the material.

A wavelength-tunable laser device includes: a wavelength-tunable light source part; an optical filter; a light receiving element; and a control device. Further, the control device includes: a monitor value calculating part configured to calculate a monitor value; a storage part configured to store wavelength control information; a target value calculating part configured to calculate a control target value; and a wavelength control part configured to control the wavelength of the laser beam to be the target wavelength, and the wavelength control information is information in which a wavelength, a control reference value, and mode identification information are associated with each other, and the target value calculating part calculates the control target value based on the wavelength control information stored in association with the same mode identification information when the same wavelength as the target wavelength is different from the wavelength control information stored in the storage part.

The present invention discloses a tunable semiconductor laser based on half-wave coupled partial reflectors. The laser comprises two resonant cavities; one resonant cavity is mainly composed of an optical waveguide, a first partial reflector and a second partial reflector, and the other resonant cavity is mainly composed of an optical waveguide, a first partial reflector and a second partial reflector. The resonant cavities are arranged along the same straight line and coupled to each other, and the two second partial reflectors in the two resonant cavities are connected by a common coupling waveguide. The present invention has the best single-mode selection, and an emitted wavelength can be switched between a series of channels; an optical grating needs not to be manufactured, and the structure is simple; and the laser has a high degree of freedom in coupler design and a great manufacturing tolerance and can realize large-scale digital tuning.

Discretely tunable laser systems include a continuously tunable laser for outputting a beam tunable among selectable frequencies, the selectable frequencies are separated in frequency by discrete frequency intervals, the discrete frequency intervals include a maximum interval and a minimum interval, where a difference between the maximum interval and the minimum interval is 100 MHz or less, and an external stabilization circuit coupled to the continuously tunable laser and a controller. The external stabilization circuit includes a first photodiode generating a first signal corresponding to a portion of the beam and an interferometer that produces resonances upon incidence of another portion of the beam. The resonances are equally spaced in frequency, with each defining one of the selectable frequencies. A second photodiode generates a second signal corresponding a transmission beam generated by the interferometer. The controller tunes the continuously tunable laser among the selectable frequencies based on the first and second signals.