[IEEE 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC) - Munich, Germany (2019.6.23-2019.6.27)] 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC) - Gas Detection using a MEMS-Based Swept Laser Source

摘要： Swept Laser Sources (SLS) provide wide wavelength tuning range and high tuning speed making them attractive sources for sensing, biomedical and industrial imaging applications. MEMS based swept lasers have recently gained more attention with their potential low cost, high tuning speeds, high output power and possibility of integration with other devices. The adaptation of MEMS based swept lasers in gas sensing would allow the detection of multiple gases at high speed and sensitivity with a single device which is a major benefit over many of the available commercial devices. In this work, we present practical sensing of carbon dioxide gas using a MEMS based swept laser. The SLS under study consists of a ring fiber cavity of length 20 m, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a gain medium, an isolator to allow a uni-directional laser operation, a fiber polarization controller, an intracavity in-plane MEMS optical tunable filter and a tapping fiber-coupler to couple some power out of the loop. The MEMS filter is a Fabry-Perot filter, based on deeply etched 80-μm height silicon/air Bragg mirrors. One of the mirrors is movable using an electrostatic comb-drive actuator. By applying a voltage across the comb-drive, an attractive force is developed which pulls the movable mirror towards the fixed one, thus the resonant wavelength of the filter is tuned, and the lasing wavelength as well.