LASER DIODE WITH AN INTERNAL MIRROR

摘要

A semiconductor laser (10) has a distributed feedback laser section (12) and an amplifier section (14). The amplifier section (14) may be tapered to lowe r the optical power density particularly at an output facet (18) of the laser. The semiconductor laser (10) also includes a reflective element (24) that reflects light (17) from the distributed feedback laser section (12) to the amplifier section (14). The reflective element (24) folds the optical path (Op) of the light beam (17). Folding the optical path (Op) allows the amplifier section (14) area to be increased without enlarging the semiconductor die size. The larger amplifier section (14) will increase the output power of the laser. Likewise the reflective element (24) will allow t he semiconductor die size to be reduced without decreasing the optical power of the laser.