Patent ID: 8934324
Filing Date: 2015-01-13
Classification: G11B,H01S

Abstract:
1. A light source, comprising: a mode-lock laser unit that includes a semiconductor laser and an external resonator unit and emits a laser beam having a predetermined frequency, the semiconductor laser including a saturable absorber unit that applies a reverse bias voltage and a gain unit that applies a gain current; a semiconductor optical amplifier that performs amplification modulation on the laser beam emitted from the mode-lock laser unit; a laser clock generating unit that generates a laser clock synchronized with the laser beam based on a signal detected from the saturable absorber unit when the laser beam oscillates in the mode-lock laser unit; and a modulating unit that generates a driving current synchronized with the laser clock and applies the driving current to the semiconductor optical amplifier, wherein the laser clock generating unit includes a filter that extracts a high-frequency component from a signal output from an electrode to which the reverse bias voltage of the saturable absorber unit is applied and an amplifier that amplifies the high-frequency component.