AMS Technologies has become the European distributor of a line of narrow-linewidth lasers, for sensing and communications applications, manufactured by US-based firm Redfern Integrated Optics (RIO).
RIO develops and manufactures optical transmitters based on its 'PLANEX' (planar external cavity laser) technology, which enables high performance at low cost for various applications. The transmitters are used for telecom and datacom applications and commercial and military fibre optic sensor applications, including interferometric sensor arrays with high sensor counts.
RIO planar ECL consists of a gain chip and a planar waveguide circuit with Bragg grating, which forms a laser cavity. This has advantages such as very narrow spectral linewidth, low phase noise and RIN, optimised chirp, low wavelength sensitivity to temperature and bias current and low power consumption.