Widely and discretely tunable laser using MEMS technology

Author

Liu, A.Q. ; Zhang, X.M.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore

fYear

2003

fDate

18-21 Aug. 2003

Firstpage

73

Lastpage

74

Abstract

A miniaturized external-cavity laser has been developed by using discrete wavelength tuning approach. The laser system is formed by integrating a semiconductor laser, a single-mode optical fiber and a micromachined mirror onto a single chip. It has an overall dimension of 1.5 μm × 1 μm × 0.6 μm (not including the optical fiber) and can be tuned within a wavelength range of 13.5 nm. The new laser system has great advantages over the conventional continuously-tunable lasers in term of simplicity, tuning range, tuning speed and wavelength/mechanical stability.

Keywords

fibre lasers; integrated optics; laser cavity resonators; laser modes; laser stability; laser tuning; micromechanical devices; micromirrors; semiconductor lasers; 0.6 mum; 1 mum; 1.5 mum; MEMS technology; discrete wavelength tuning approach; external-cavity laser; micromachined mirror; semiconductor laser; single-mode optical fiber; tunable laser; wavelength/mechanical stability; Fiber lasers; Laser feedback; Laser modes; Laser stability; Laser tuning; Micromechanical devices; Mirrors; Optical tuning; Semiconductor lasers; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Optical MEMS, 2003 IEEE/LEOS International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7830-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OMEMS.2003.1233473

Filename

1233473