LASER MULTIPLEXING APPARATUS FOR CAUSING ENTIRE BUNDLE OF LIGHT BEAMS EMITTED FROM PLURAL SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS TO CONVERGE AND ENTER OPTICAL FIBER

摘要

PURPOSE: A laser multiplexing apparatus for causing an entire bundle of light beams emitted from plural semiconductor lasers to converge and enter an optical fiber is provided to suppresses increase in size and multiplex optically an entirety of a bundle of light beams with high coupling efficiency. CONSTITUTION: A plurality of semiconductor lasers having active layers, which are coplanar with respect to each other, are arranged on a laser block(10). A collimating optical system(20) collimates the light beams in such a manner that slow axes of the light beams are coplanar, and the optical axes of the light beams are parallel to each other. A light beam rearrangement optical system(30) includes a plurality of prisms corresponding to the light beams for rearranging the light beams in such a manner that directions of the fast axes of the light beams are changed at different locations along the direction in which the light beams propagate, and the fast axes of the light beams become coplanar. A convergence optical system(25) converges a bundle of the light beams in directions of the fast axes and the slow axes of the light beams and allows the converged bundle of the light beams to enter an optical fiber(40).