Semiconductor laser oscillator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9917416-B2
Application number	US-201515504820-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2015
Priority date	Oct 15, 2014
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

A semiconductor laser oscillator includes a diode unit configured from a plurality of banks, in which one bank is configured from a plurality of laser diodes connected in series. The diode unit includes a wavelength locking mechanism for locking to a plurality of wavelengths. The semiconductor laser oscillator includes a controller configured to control input currents to the laser diodes of each of the plurality of banks individually in correspondence to a characteristic of a wavelength locking efficiency, and to control an output of the diode unit as a whole to a required output.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A semiconductor laser oscillator comprising:
a diode source comprising a plurality of banks, in which one bank comprises a plurality of laser diodes connected in series, wherein
the diode source comprises a wavelength lock configured to lock to a plurality of wavelengths, and
the semiconductor laser oscillator further comprises a controller configured to control input currents to the plurality of laser diodes of each of the plurality of banks individually in correspondence to a characteristic of a wavelength locking efficiency, and to control an output of the diode source as a whole to a required output,
wherein the plurality of banks comprise at least a first bank for which the wavelength locking efficiency at a time of low current where an input current is from 0 to a predetermined value is in a first state, and a second bank for which the wavelength locking efficiency at the time of low current is in a second state that is lower than the first state, and
the controller controls an output of the second bank to be 0 while an output required for the diode source as a whole is from 0 to a predetermined value.

2. The semiconductor laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein the laser diodes are single emitter laser diodes.

3. The semiconductor laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein the laser diodes are laser diode modules in which a plurality of single emitter laser diodes are spatially coupled.

4. The semiconductor laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein the laser diodes are diode laser bars.

5. The semiconductor laser oscillator according to claim 1 , wherein the laser diodes are laser diode modules in which a plurality of diode laser bars are spatially coupled.

Assignees

• Amada Holdings Co Ltd
• Lumentum Operations Llc

Inventors

• Usuda Kaori
• Ogata Minoru

Classifications

• H01S5/005

  Optical components external to the laser cavity, specially adapted therefor, e.g. for homogenisation or merging of the beams or for manipulating laser pulses, e.g. pulse shaping (H01S5/026, H01S5/18388 take precedence) · CPC title

• B23K26/064

  by means of optical elements, e.g. lenses, mirrors or prisms · CPC title

• H01S5/0683

  by monitoring the optical output parameters · CPC title

• H01S5/0617

  using memorised or pre-programmed laser characteristics · CPC title

• H01S5/141

  using a wavelength selective device, e.g. a grating or etalon (H01S5/146 takes precedence) · CPC title