Unidirectional laterally gain-coupled distributed feedback ring laser diodes.

The authors report the development of laterally gain-coupled ring lasers that exhibit uni-directional and singlemode operation. Counter-propagating modes in the ring are suppressed such that 83% of the light output comes from only one propagation direction. The mode stability of the ring laser is significantly improved through the introduction of a gain-coupled distributed feedback mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]