Compact, power-efficient stacked broadband optical emitters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11022491-B2
Application number	US-202016848126-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 14, 2020
Priority date	Sep 23, 2014
Publication date	Jun 1, 2021
Grant date	Jun 1, 2021

Abstract

The present disclosure describes broadband optical emission sources that include a stack of semiconductor layers, wherein each of the semiconductor layers is operable to emit light of a different respective wavelength; a light source operable to provide optical pumping for stimulated photon emission from the stack; wherein the semiconductor layers are disposed sequentially in the stack such that a first one of the semiconductor layers is closest to the light source and a last one of the semiconductor layers is furthest from the light source, and wherein each particular one of the semiconductor layers is at least partially transparent to the light generated by the other semiconductor layers that are closer to the light source than the particular semiconductor layer. The disclosure also describes various spectrometers that include a broadband optical emission device, and optionally include a tuneable wavelength filter operable to allow a selected pass through.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A spectrometer comprising:
a broadband optical emission device including a light source operable to be driven so as to generate stimulated optical emission from the broadband optical emission device;
a tunable wavelength filter operable to allow a selected wavelength or range of wavelengths of light from the broadband optical emission device to be incident on a sample, wherein other non-selected wavelengths or ranges of wavelengths of light are reflected back by the tunable wavelength filter toward the broadband optical emission device to generate further stimulated optical emission; and
a light detector operable to sense optical signals based on a portion of the light that passes through the sample or is reflected by the sample.

2. The spectrometer of claim 1 , wherein the tunable wavelength filter comprises a Fabry Perrot filter.

3. The spectrometer of claim 1 wherein the filter comprises a scanning MEMS filter.

4. The spectrometer of claim 1 wherein the filter comprises a linear variable Fabry Perrot filter.

Assignees

• Ams Sensors Singapore Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Riel Peter
• Roentgen Peter

Classifications

• H10H20/856

  Reflecting means · CPC title

• H10H20/8513

  having two or more wavelength conversion materials · CPC title

• H10H20/8514

  characterised by their shape, e.g. plate or foil · CPC title

• H10H20/8515

  not being in contact with the bodies · CPC title

• H10H20/84

  Coatings, e.g. passivation layers or antireflective coatings · CPC title