Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Method and apparatus for coherence enhancement of sweep velocity locked lasers via all-electronic upconversion
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Application No.: US15656255Application Date: 2017-07-21
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Publication No.: US10224694B2Publication Date: 2019-03-05
- Inventor: Tao Wei , Zhen Chen , Gerald Hefferman
- Applicant: Rhode Island Board of Education, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
- Applicant Address: US RI Providence
- Assignee: Rhode Island Board of Education, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
- Current Assignee: Rhode Island Board of Education, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
- Current Assignee Address: US RI Providence
- Agency: Barlow, Josephs & Holmes, Ltd.
- Main IPC: H01S5/042
- IPC: H01S5/042 ; H01S5/062 ; H01S5/068 ; H01S5/0683

Abstract:
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus to improve the dynamic coherent length of a sweep velocity-locked laser pulse generator (SV-LLPG) in an all-electronic fashion. A digital SV-LLPG is disclosed with two operation modes, i.e., unidirectional and bidirectional sweep modes; self-adaptive and time-dependent loop parameters (gain and location of poles/zeros); and, self-adaptive initial input curve. High frequency locking architectures, both single-side band (SSB) modulation method and direct phase measurement method, are provided to suppress the linewidth, or improve the coherent length, of the swept laser. A combination of high and low frequency locking, or a combination of multiple architectures disclosed in this invention, is utilized to achieve a higher level of linewidth reduction. The enhanced laser coherence extends the measurement range by at least one order of magnitude for applications including frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and optical fiber distributed sensing applications.
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