Patent ID: 7565084

Claim:
A lasing system comprising: an optical cavity, formed from a first reflector and a second reflector, operative to establish a series of discrete wavelength locations according to cavity length; an attenuator, disposed substantially in the optical cavity, operative: to select a first plurality of adjacent ones of the discrete wavelength locations for forming photonic peaks, each comprising lasing energy, that are aligned to a dense wavelength division multiplexing channel; and to select a second plurality of adjacent ones of the discrete wavelength locations and a third plurality of adjacent ones of the discrete wavelength locations for inhibiting formation of photonic peaks misaligned with the channel, the first plurality between the second plurality and the third plurality; a gain medium, disposed substantially in the optical cavity, operative to form and energize a respective one of the photonic peaks at each of the selected first plurality of the wavelength locations; a mode slicer, disposed substantially in the optical cavity, operative to slice each of the photonic peaks to create a respective plurality of finer energized photonic peaks; and a signal connection to the gain medium for transmitting a signal encoded with information to the gain medium, wherein the gain medium is operative to modulate the formed photonic peaks in response to the transmitted signal.