Diamond shaped ring laser characterization, package design and performance

A semiconductor diamond-shaped ring laser was fabricated and packaged for further test and analysis as an element in digital photonic logic. The optical characteristics of the ring laser were quantified in order to design a prototype package. The mode field was found to be quasi-circular. Based on the mode field of the laser, coupling curves were calculated and Corning OptiFocustrade lensed fiber was chosen to use for the four fiber outputs. Each fiber placement was actively optimized. Output power measurements were made for each facet before and after fiber coupling. Reflections from fiber tips were found to affect the final output power distribution of the device even though the fibers were anti-reflection (AR) coated, and additional effort was put into minimizing its variance. The packaged devices were tested for performance in digital photonic logic applications. Tests conducted to this point indicate that the packaging enabled a multiple port device of this type to be sufficiently portable for field testing