SBIR Phase I: Electro-Optically Tunable Diode Lasers for Sensing Applications

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将利用一种新型的巨大电光效应将机械外腔二极管激光器缩小到厘米大小的波导芯片。该器件是一种波导外腔半导体激光器（WECSL），环境坚固，结构紧凑，完全是电光器件，能够在500毫秒内连续进行100 nm的无模式跳变调谐。该激光器还将表现出40 dB的侧模抑制比和~100 kHz的（快速）线宽。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是低成本的wecsl技术平台，其精确的性能规格将使基于激光的传感器在商业应用中发挥突出作用。在生物光子学中，可调谐激光器可以取代宽带光源，提高光学相干断层扫描仪器的性能，用于测量人体视网膜和血管系统中的组织层。分布式光纤传感阵列极大地受益于可调谐激光器探测沿光纤分布的布拉格传感器。分布式光纤传感器需要低成本的可调谐激光器，用于化学和生物传感、压力传感、振动、应变和温度传感。低成本可调谐激光器也需要用于有毒工业化合物的环境感应和采矿和其他工业作业中较低爆炸限度的安全监测。“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will reduce mechanical external-cavity diode lasers to a centimeter-sized waveguide chip using a novel giant electro-optic effect. The device, a waveguide external-cavity semiconductor laser (WECSL), will be environmentally robust, compact, entirely electro-optic and capable of continuous, mode-hop-free tuning of 100 nm in 500 ms. The laser will also exhibit a side-mode-suppression ratio of 40 dB and a (fast) line width of ~100 kHz. The broader impacts/commercial potential of this project will be a low-cost technology platform of WECSLs, and their precision performance specifications will enable laser-based sensors to assume a prominent role in commercial applications. In biophotonics, tunable lasers can replace broadband light sources and enhance the performance of optical coherence tomography instruments that measure the tissue layers in the human retina and the vascular system. Distributed fiber sensing arrays greatly benefit from tunable lasers that probe Bragg sensors spaced along the fiber. Distributed fiber sensors needing low-cost tunable lasers are being developed for chemical and biological sensing, pressure sensing, and vibration, strain and temperature sensing. Low-cost tunable lasers are also needed for environmental sensing of toxic industrial compounds and safety monitoring for lower explosive limits in mining and other industrial operations."This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."