Traveling wave semi-conductor laser

Claim 1

A ring-type laser comprising: a substrate; a monolithic laser body on said substrate and etched to form a laser structure, said laser structure including at least three longitudinal, integrally formed cavity sections with each section having first and second ends and an axis and each section defining a longitudinal light path along its axis, corresponding ends of said sections being integral to define at least three apexes at the intersections of the axes of adjoining sections, said axes intersecting at preselected angles to form a closed ring-type light path in the laser structure; current supply means connected across said laser structure for stimulating light emission within each said cavity section, whereby light propagates therein along light paths parallel to the axes of said cavity sections; and a facet integral with said laser structure at each of said apexes, each facet being positioned at its corresponding apex at preselected angles with the axes of adjoining sections to produce internal reflection of at least a part of said stimulated light propagating in said cavity sections to direct said light along said closed light path, said facets having a critical angle and each being positioned at a preselected angle with respect to the axes of adjacent cavity sections so as to cause at least a portion of said light propagating along said closed light path to impinge on each of said facets in turn, the angle between a line perpendicular to at least one of said facets and its adjacent cavity section axes being selected to be equal to or less than the critical angle thereof to thereby select the amount of light emitted by said laser.