Surface emitting laser, information acquiring apparatus, imaging apparatus, laser array, and method of manufacturing surface emitting laser

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10418784-B2
Application number	US-201515538362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 8, 2015
Priority date	Dec 26, 2014
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

A surface emitting laser having a wide wavelength tunable band is provided.
A surface emitting laser includes a first reflecting mirror ( 102 ); a second reflecting mirror ( 116 ); and an active layer ( 104 ) arranged between the first reflecting mirror ( 102 ) and the second reflecting mirror ( 116 ), a gap being formed between the second reflecting mirror ( 116 ) and the active layer ( 104 ), an oscillation wavelength being tunable. The second reflecting mirror ( 116 ) includes a beam ( 108 ) comprising a single-crystal semiconductor, and a dielectric multilayer film ( 110 ) supported by the beam ( 108 ), and the dielectric multilayer film ( 110 ) is arranged in an opening ( 118 ) formed in the beam ( 108 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A surface emitting laser comprising:
a first reflecting mirror;
a second reflecting mirror; and
an active layer arranged between the first reflecting mirror and the second reflecting mirror,
wherein a gap is formed between the second reflecting mirror and the active layer,
wherein an oscillation wavelength is tunable,
wherein the second reflecting mirror includes a beam comprising a single-crystal semiconductor and a dielectric multilayer film supported by the beam, and
wherein the dielectric multilayer film is arranged in an opening formed in the beam,
wherein a surface of the dielectric multilayer film facing the active layer protrudes from the opening toward a side of the active layer with respect to a surface of the beam facing the active layer, and
wherein the dielectric multilayer film is arranged continuously from inside the opening to a portion around the opening and on top of the surface of the beam opposite to the surface facing the active layer.

2. The surface emitting laser according to claim 1 ,
wherein the surface emitting laser has a semiconductor structure including the active layer, and
wherein the semiconductor structure includes a support layer comprising a single-crystal semiconductor configured to support the beam.

3. The surface emitting laser according to claim 2 , wherein the support layer includes a plurality of support layers comprising different single-crystal semiconductors.

4. The surface emitting laser according to claim 1 , wherein the beam has a thickness that is decreased toward the opening.

5. An information acquiring apparatus comprising:
the surface emitting laser according to claim 1 ; and
an information acquiring unit configured to acquire information on the inside of a measurement object.

6. An imaging apparatus comprising:
the surface emitting laser according to claim 1 ;
an interference optical system configured to split light from the surface emitting laser into irradiation light that is emitted on a measurement object and reference light, and generate interfering light from reflected light of the light emitted on the measurement object and the reference light;
a light detecting unit configured to receive the interfering light; and
an information acquiring unit configured to acquire information on the measurement object on the basis of a signal from the light detecting unit.

7. A laser array comprising a plurality of surface emitting lasers, wherein at least one of the plurality of surface emitting lasers is the surface emitting laser according to claim 1 .

8. The surface emitting laser according to claim 1 , wherein the first reflecting mirror, the active layer, and the beam of the second reflecting mirror is a continuous single-crystal semiconductor.

9. The surface emitting laser according to claim 1 , wherein the single-crystal semiconductor beam is grown continuously from a substrate to the beam.

10. The surface emitting laser according to claim 1 , wherein one or more of the following:
(i) the dielectric multilayer film projects downward or towards the active layer with respect to the opening of the beam; and
(ii) the dielectric multilayer film is a dielectric distributed Bragg reflector (DBR).

11. A surface emitting laser comprising:
a first reflecting mirror;
a second reflecting mirror; and
an active layer arranged between the first reflecting mirror and the second reflecting mirror,
wherein the second reflecting mirror includes a beam and a multilayer film supported by the beam,
wherein a gap is formed between the second reflecting mirror and the active layer,
wherein the multilayer film is arranged in-inside an opening formed in the beam,
wherein the multilayer film is arranged continuously from the opening to a portion around the opening and on top of the surface of the beam opposite to the surface facing the active layer, and
wherein a surface of the dielectric multilayer film facing the active layer protrudes from the opening toward a side of the active layer with respect to a surface of the beam facing the active layer.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Nakanishi Koichiro
• Nagatomo Yasuhiro

Classifications

• G01B9/02091

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• H01S5/18311

  using selective oxidation · CPC title

• H01S5/423

  having a vertical cavity · CPC title

• G02F1/133528

  Polarisers · CPC title

• H01S5/041

  Optical pumping · CPC title