Broadband Superluminescent LEDs

A SLED is an edge-emitting light source. One of the exceptional qualities of the SLED is its high output power and low beam divergence, similar to a laser diode, but with a broad emission spectrum and low coherence, similar to a LED. SLEDs are similar in geometry to lasers but have no built-in optical feedback mechanism required by laser diodes.SLEDs have a much higher gain, higher current density and stronger non-uniformity of photons and carrier density distribution inside the active region. SLEDs are essentially highly optimized LEDs. While SLEDs operate like LEDs at low current levels, their output power increases superlinearly at high currents. Applications include optic components testing, fiber sensor systems, fiber optic gyroscopes, optical computed tomography (OCT), biomedical imaging devices.