Use of a photonic crystal for optical amplifier gain control

Patent · Tue Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:908329

Lin, Shawn-Yu ^[1]; Fleming, James G ^[1]; El-Kady, Ihab ^[1]

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1. Albuquerque, NM

An optical amplifier having a uniform gain profile uses a photonic crystal to tune the density-of-states of a gain medium so as to modify the light emission rate between atomic states. The density-of-states of the gain medium is tuned by selecting the size, shape, dielectric constant, and spacing of a plurality of microcavity defects in the photonic crystal. The optical amplifier is particularly useful for the regeneration of DWDM signals in long optical fibers.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• Assignee: Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
• Patent Number(s): 7,079,309
• Application Number: 10/607,065
• OSTI ID: 908329
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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