Coupled-ring reflector in an external-cavity tunable laser

A robust biomedical sensor for ultrasensitive detection of biomarkers in breath based on a tunable external cavity laser (ECL) and an off-axis cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (OA-CEAS) using an amplitude stabilizer is developed. A single-mode, narrow-linewidth, tunable ECL is demonstrated. A broadly coarse wavelength tuning range of 720 cm⁻¹ for the spectral range between 6890 and 6170 cm⁻¹ is achieved by rotating the diffraction grating forming a Littrow-type external-cavity configuration. A mode-hop-free tuning range of 1.85 cm⁻¹ is obtained. The linewidths below 140 kHz are recorded. The ECL is combined with an OA-CEAS to perform laser chemical sensing. Our system is able to detect any molecule in breath at concentrations to the ppbv range that have absorption lines in the spectral range between 1450 and 1620 nm. Ammonia is selected as target molecule to evaluate the performance of the sensor. Using the absorption line of ammonia at 6528.76 cm⁻¹, a minimum detectable absorption coefficient of approximately 1×10⁻⁸ cm⁻¹ is demonstrated for 256 averages. This is achieved for a 1.4-km absorption path length and a 2-s data-acquisition time. These results yield a detection sensitivity of approximately 8.6×10⁻¹⁰ cm⁻¹ Hz(-1/2). Ammonia in exhaled breath is analyzed and found in a concentration of 870 ppb for our example.

Chip-scale lasers with a wide tunable range and a narrow linewidth have rich applications in optical communications, sensing, and light detection and ranging systems. External cavity lasers (ECLs) have the advantage of a wide tuning range and a narrow linewidth compared with their counterparts such as distributed feedback lasers and distributed Bragg reflector lasers because the passive filter separated from the gain section can be widely tuned and the low-loss external cavity extends the photon lifetime. However, so far, the tuning range achieved by the chip-scale ECLs is in the range of 80–120 nm, smaller than that of the bulk free-space ECL (typically >160 nm). The bottleneck in reaching an ultrabroad tuning range for chip-scale ECLs lies in the unsuppressed side modes of the external cavity. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid-integrated ECL consisting of a broadband III–V reflective semiconductor optical amplifier and a low-loss Si3N4 wavelength-selective reflector. A record 172-nm lasing wavelength tuning range together with a more than 40 dB side-mode suppression ratio is achieved beyond the free spectral range of the Vernier ring filter due to the enhanced lasing mode selection from a tunable Sagnac loop reflector. The Si3N4 platform enables a low-loss external cavity, facilitating laser linewidth reduction below 4 kHz over the full tuning range. The on-chip output power reaches 26.7 mW at a wavelength of 1550 nm.

Multi-wavelength distributed feedback laser array (DFB-MLA) based tunable semiconductor lasers have been widely used owing to the high mode stability and simple wavelength tuning scheme. In this paper, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a matrix-grating tunable DFB laser array. And the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp (REC) technique is utilized to simplify grating fabrication and realize precise control of the grating phase. Traditionally, the laser is tuned by thermal-electric cooler (TEC), with large power consumption, slow wavelength tuning capability, and added device. To improve the wavelength tuning speed of laser, we varied laser's injection current instead of adjusting TEC's temperature. In addition, we analyzed the thermal influence of submount on the laser and then chose the SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> as the submount material for its low thermal conductivity and poor heat dissipation, resulting in wide wavelength tuning range via injection current. The DFB-MLA chip achieves a better tunable effect as the lasers can be tuned at 3.5-3.7 nm per channel from 50 to 120 mA with stable output power of over 3 mw as contrasted with the laser on the AlN submount being tuned at 1.4-1.5 nm per channel. And the chip has a side-mode suppressing ratio (SMSR) of over 35 dB and strong stability of wavelength in the repeated experiments. The proposed method may give a new way to realize the wide tuning range tunable DFB laser with a simple wavelength tuning mechanism in the future, especially for the applications of uncooled low-cost tunable lasers.

TOPTICA's continuously tunable laser, the CTL, enables mode‐hop‐free wavelength tuning up to 120 nm with narrow linewidth and highest accuracy. With applications in device characterization, quantum and materials analysis, it is ideal for any application requiring high precision mode-hop free laser operation over a wide tuning range. In this demo, Dr. Rudolf Neuhaus demonstrates how to operate the laser with the fully digital, low noise and drift DLC pro controller using intuitive touch screen controls. To illustrate the convenient features of the laser and DLC pro controller, the system is connected to a spectroscopy cell and the transmission spectra is measured by a photodiode and recorded by the DLC pro with the ability to review the data live and adjust operating parameters accordingly, including the ability to lock the laser to a specific laser line. For more information about the CTL, contact us at sales@toptica-usa.com.

A frequency-tuning negative-conductance (-G <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</sub> ) boosted structure and applications for a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented in this paper. Analog tuning varactors connected to a -G <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</sub> boosted structure is proposed to significantly alleviate the limitation of the tuning range for the -G <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</sub> boosted structure, resulting in a low-voltage low-power wide-tuning-range VCO. Based on the proposed architecture, the fabricated 0.18-μm CMOS VCO exhibits a measured 49.8% tuning range. Operating at 0.65 V low supply voltage, the VCO core consumes 2.37-mW dc power. At this bias condition, the measured average value of phase noise for all frequency ranges is -115.1 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset from the carriers. Relative to recently published wide-tuning-range CMOS VCOs, the proposed VCO simultaneously achieves low supply voltage, low dc power dissipation, low phase noise, and a wide tuning range, leading to a good figure-of-merit (FOM) and FOM including the tuning range. Furthermore, formulas of analysis for the proposed frequency-tuning -Gm boosted structure and wide VCO tuning range are presented, and the mechanisms are validated by experiments.

We demonstrate a 10-Gb/s tunable external cavity laser with a polymer Bragg reflector and a highly integrated semiconductor gain chip including an asymmetric ring resonator reflector. The output power of the tunable laser is increased by adjusting the coupling strengths of two multimode interferences (MMIs) of the ring resonator reflector. The output power of the tunable laser is 6 mW at gain and semiconductor optical amplifier currents of 100 mA, and at a temperature of 25°C when the cross-coupling strengths ratios of two MMI couplers are 0.36 and 0.5. The tunable laser successfully provides 10-Gb/s transmissions through 20-km standard single mode fiber (SMF). The power penalty of the tunable laser is less than 2 dB after a 20-km SMF transmission for a 16-nm tuning range. The power penalty variation is less than 2 dB during the blue-shifted wavelength tuning.

A tunable external cavity laser (ECL) near 3.24 μm was developed using semiconductor laser gain chips based on GaSb. The type-1 interband laser diodes were grown by molecular beam epitaxy using 17 nm InGaAsSb compressively-strained quantum wells with 30 nm AlInGaAsSb quinary barriers for improved hole confinement. In continuous-wave operation with a diode temperature of 10°C, the ECLs produce up to 1.8 mW of singlemode output power with a tuning range of 60 nm. The devices are tunable through the fundamental ν 3 vibrational absorption features of methane gas, providing a platform for highly-sensitive detection of trace hydrocarbons.

Characteristics of a 1.55 mu m wavelength tunable DBR laser with three sections are described. The wavelength tuning range is investigated by changing the composition of the GaInAsP guide layer. The maximum change of the Bragg wavelength is nearly 10 nm at lambda /sub g/=1.38 mu m, and a continuous tuning range of 6.2 nm is achieved for lambda /sub g/=1.29 mu m.

A design method for a frequency-tunable planar bandpass filter is demonstrated. With the method, all reasonators can be designed with identical capacitances, allowing the filter to be tuned with identical varactors using a single bias control. This allows not only low-cost fabrication, but also a simple structure and design procedure. Moreover, the filter is based on miniaturized transmission lines. Therefore, a wide tuning range is achieved with a small size and outstanding out-of-band response. Most importantly, the method facilitates the design of a filter to vary the fractional bandwidth in a predetermined way as the center frequency is tuned. Thus, a tunable filter can be designed not only to maintain the fractional bandwidth, but also to expand or to reduce the bandwidth as the frequency is tuned. The experimental results of a compact third-order bandpass filter based on CPW lines with a 0.11λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> ×0.8λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> size show a very wide frequency tuning range of 62.8% with a 3-dB fraction bandwidth that remains within 28.65±1.55% and an outstanding spurious suppression of under -40 dB up to as high as 3f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> .

We report a widely tunable optically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. The multiple quantum wells in the active region of the gain chip are generally designed to form the resonant periodic gain structure, and three different methods are used to tune the oscillating wavelength. The maximum wavelength coverage of 45 nm is obtained when a 2 mm thickness birefringent filter is introduced in a straight-line cavity, while the tuning range of 8 nm is performed by employing a 0.15 mm thickness uncoated Fabry-Perot etalon. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we present an 11 nm tuning range by the use of an inserted blade as the tuning element, and the related wavelength tuning mechanism is analyzed.

A tunable external cavity laser is described based on butt coupling a semiconductor gain chip to a Bragg grating fabricated on silicon-on-insulator. The novel Bragg grating is formed between crystalline and polycrystalline silicon.

The injection-locking properties of a high power antireflection coated 1.3- mu m slave laser subjected to relatively low injection powers from a distributed feedback (DFB) laser and from a tunable external cavity laser have been investigated. Narrow linewidth operation ( approximately 40 kHz) was demonstrated and the tuning range within two slave modes ( approximately 10 GHz) and over the gain profile ( approximately 40 nm) was investigated. In addition, the tracking properties of the slave laser for both frequency and phase modulated injected light was evaluated at 1 Gb/s, in which the fidelity was judged from bit-error-rate measurements. The maximum locked power under 1 Gb/s frequency modulation was about 145 mW, limited by the available master power; approximately 300 mu W was injected into the slave.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A tunable wavelength filter with constant transmissivity (gain) and bandwidth is a key device for wavelength division multiplexing networks. Such a filter has recently been demonstrated with a multi-electrode DFB LD[1]. This filter is biased at just below the threshold current in operation. It has two current injection sections, and the transmission wavelength and gain are controlled by changing the two currents. Since each current causes simultaneous change of the wavelength and the gain, it is difficult to obtain a large transmission wavelength tuning range maintainig a large gain. Thus, tuning range has been restricted to 20.6GHz. We demonstrate here a wide range tunable wavelength filter which uses a phase controllable distributed feedback laser diode(PC DFB LD). We call this filter a PC DFB LD filter. In this filter, the gain and the wavelength are controlled almost separately. Therefore, tuning range as wide as 43GHz has been achieved. This wavelength tuning range is the widest of any semiconductor tunable wavelength filter, to our knowledge. In the wavelength tuning operation, 27dB gain and 5GHz bandwidth have been maintained.

Recently, variable digital filters (VDFs) have become an essential research topic. This paper presents a simple method for the design of infinite impulse response (IIR) VDFs with high tuning accuracy. First, VDFs were created using a state-space model based on a frequency transformation, which requires the inverse matrix and the square root that leads to high computational cost. Then a new algorithm was implemented to generate the same VDFs absent the complex calculations that utilized negative binomial and Taylor series approximations in a simple state-space formulation. This algorithm provides high-accuracy approximations of the inverse matrix and square root compared to other algorithms that have been developed. Thus, the proposed VDFs have high tuning accuracy with respect to finite wordlength effects.

A tunable fiber laser comb is experimentally demonstrated in linear Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) cavity with an assistant of four wave mixing (FWM) process. Two nonlinear processes are contributed, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and FWM in this study, to improve the efficiency of the laser cavity. The number of the generated Stokes and anti-Stokes signals is improved to be 120 Single space channels. The recorded Stokes lines cover 9 nm in L-band region of 1,580 nm. Furthermore, the tuning range of the proposed cavity is also improved to 50 nm that covers C- and L-band regions from 1,550 to 1,600 nm. Three parameters are associated to achieve such wide tuning range in the proposed setup: high Brillouin pump (Bp) of 8 dBm, pre-amplification technique for inserting Bp signal, and using wide erbium emission peak in FWM section.