Patent ID: 7184451

Claim:
A device, comprising: a closed optical loop to produce laser light, the closed optical loop comprising an optical gain medium to amplify light and to modulate an optical gain of the laser light in response to a control signal applied to the optical gain medium; an opto-electronic path comprising an optical section coupled to receive a portion of the laser light from the closed optical loop, an electronic section to produce the control signal, and an optical detector coupled between and interconnecting the optical section and the electronic section to covert light in the optical section into an electrical signal in the electronic section, wherein the electronic section produces the control signal from the electrical signal and wherein the opto-electronic path and at least a portion of the closed optical loop form a closed opto-electronic loop to produce an oscillation at a signal frequency; a tunable optical filter optically coupled in the closed optical loop to filter the laser light circulating in the closed optical loop, the tunable optical filter comprising: an input port to receive the laser light, a first optical path coupled to the input port to receive a first portion of the received laser light and comprising a first tunable optical resonator to transmit light at a first resonator resonance frequency, a second optical path coupled to the input port to receive a second portion of the laser light and comprising a second tunable optical resonator to transmit light at a second resonator resonance frequency different from the first resonator resonance frequency by the signal frequency, and an output port coupled to the first and second optical paths to combine transmitted light from the first and second optical paths to produce an output optical beam into the closed optical loop; and a mechanism to adjust a relative optical phase between the first and the second optical paths in response to a change in the signal frequency.