End pumped PWG with tapered core thickness

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9726820-B2
Application number	US-201514682539-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2015
Priority date	Aug 14, 2014
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

A planar wave guide (PWG) having a first end for coupling to a light pump and a second end opposite to the first end and including a first cladding layer; a second cladding layer; and a uniformly doped core layer between the first cladding layer and the second cladding layer, wherein the core layer is tapered having a smaller thickness at the first end and a larger thickness at the second end, and wherein a ratio of the core thickness to thickness of the cladding layers is smaller at the first end and larger at the second end.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A planar wave guide (PWG) having a first end for coupling to a light pump and a second end opposite to the first end comprising:
a first cladding layer;
a second cladding layer; and
a uniformly doped core layer between the first cladding layer and the second cladding layer, wherein the core layer is tapered having a smaller thickness at the first end and a larger thickness at the second end, wherein the first cladding layer has a larger thickness than the second cladding layer, at any point along a length of the PWG, and wherein the second cladding layer is formed by coating a corresponding side of the core layer with a uniform layer of material that serves as an evanescent wave (e-wave) coating.

2. The PWG of claim 1 , wherein the first cladding layer is proportionally tapered along the length of the PWG and having a larger thickness at the first end and a smaller thickness at the second end and the second cladding layer has a constant thickness along the length of the PWG to form the PWG with a uniform overall thickness along the length.

3. The PWG of claim 1 , wherein the first cladding layer and the second cladding layer have a constant same thickness along the length of the PWG to form the PWG with a varying overall thickness along the length proportional to the varying thickness of the core layer.

4. The PWG of claim 1 , wherein the core thickness has a taper ratio of 3:1 from one end to the other end of the PWG.

5. The PWG of claim 1 , wherein the core thickness varies from about 25 microns at the first end to about 75 microns at the second end.

6. The PWG of claim 1 , wherein the first cladding layer is proportionally tapered along the length of the PWG having a larger thickness at the first end and a smaller thickness at the second end oppositely proportional to the thickness of the core layer and the second cladding layer has a constant thickness along the length of the PWG to form the PWG with a uniform overall thickness along its length.

7. The PWG of claim 1 , wherein the first cladding layer and the second cladding layer each have a constant thickness along the length of the PWG to form the PWG with a varying overall thickness along the length proportional to the varying length of the core layer.

8. An optical amplifier including the PWG of claim 1 .

9. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer including the PWG of claim 1 .

10. A wavelength division multiplexer including the PWG of claim 1 .

11. A laser weapon including the PWG of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Raytheon Co

Inventors

• Filgas David M
• Stultz Robert D

Classifications

• G02B2006/12159

  Interferometer · CPC title

• H01S3/0617 Primary

  having a varying composition or cross-section in a specific direction · CPC title

• H01S3/0625

  Coatings on surfaces other than the end-faces · CPC title

• H01S3/0632

  Thin film lasers in which light propagates in the plane of the thin film · CPC title

• H01S3/1643

  YAG · CPC title