JPH10307272A - Optical recorder using fiber array - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an optical recorder using a fiber array which is stable even when ambient temperature is changed and has high reliability and high performance by forming a narrow part at a core part propagating light in an optical fiber. SOLUTION: Plural optical fibers 14 pulled out from plural semiconductor laser modules constitute the fiber array bundled in an array state on a laser outgoing side, and plural laser beams outgoing in a state where they are arrayed in a line from the fiber array are used to perform optical recording. The narrow part 15 is formed at the core part 13 propagating the light in the optical fiber 14. The core part 13 of the optical fiber 14 has a large diameter and stably guides the laser beam in the core even when the semiconductor laser module is deformed because of the change of the ambient temperature. Since the core diameter gets small at the narrow part 15, the laser beam in a single mode is maintained even in the case of the blue semiconductor laser whose wavelength is made shorter.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical recording apparatus such as a laser printer for performing high-speed optical recording using a plurality of laser beams.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Laser beams emitted from a plurality of semiconductor lasers are guided to corresponding optical fibers, and the plurality of optical fibers are bundled in an array on a laser beam emitting side to form a fiber array. A laser printer that simultaneously scans a plurality of laser beams simultaneously with a rotary polygon mirror is suitable for high-speed printing. In order to narrow down the laser light emitted from the optical fiber to a small light spot on the photosensitive material with high precision, the optical fiber needs to transmit in a single mode. By the way, the Se photosensitive material used in the laser printer has high sensitivity to blue light having a short wavelength, and has low sensitivity to red light having a long wavelength. The laser wavelength of a semiconductor laser used in a compact disk is a near-infrared wavelength of 780 nm. Recently, a blue semiconductor laser having a shorter wavelength is being developed.
Attention has been paid to the fact that it matches the sensitivity of the Se photosensitive material. On the other hand, in a single mode optical fiber, as the wavelength of light becomes shorter, the diameter of a core portion through which light propagates becomes smaller. For example, the core diameter of a single optical fiber having a wavelength of 1.06 μm is 6.
Although it is 4 μm, the core diameter for a wavelength of 630 nm is 3.8 μm. Therefore, for example, a single mode optical fiber for a blue laser has a smaller core diameter, and a semiconductor laser module for guiding the light of the semiconductor laser to the optical fiber is required to have high accuracy. That is, in order for the laser light output from the optical fiber to be constant even when the environmental temperature changes, it is necessary to suppress the deformation of the semiconductor laser module due to the environmental temperature change more than ever, which is difficult.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical module which is stable even when there is a change in environmental temperature and provides an optical recording apparatus using a fiber array having high reliability and high performance. .

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, an optical recording apparatus using a fiber array according to the present invention comprises:
A plurality of semiconductor laser modules for guiding laser light emitted from a semiconductor laser to corresponding optical fibers are provided, and a plurality of optical fibers drawn from the plurality of semiconductor laser modules are bundled in an array on the laser light emitting side. In the optical recording apparatus that performs optical recording using a plurality of laser lights that are arranged and emitted in a line from the fiber array, a constriction occurs in a core portion that propagates the light of the optical fiber. It is characterized in that it is provided.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. The semiconductor laser module 1 causes the laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser 2 to enter the optical fiber 14 via the lens 3. The semiconductor laser has a blue wavelength, and
The photosensitive drum 9 made of a system material has high sensitivity at this wavelength. A plurality of the semiconductor laser modules 1 are provided, and the optical fibers 14 are bundled in an array on the laser light emission side to constitute the fiber array unit 4. Each of the plurality of beams emitted from the fiber array unit 4 is converted into parallel light by a collimator lens 5, expanded by a beam expander 6, and then forms a light spot array 11 on a photosensitive drum 9 by a scanning lens 8. The light spot rows are arranged obliquely to the scanning direction, and are simultaneously scanned on the photosensitive drum 9 by the rotating polygon mirror 7 as shown at 10. Cylindrical lens 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes a lens for correcting unevenness in the pitch of an optical scanning line caused by rotation fluctuation of the rotary polygon mirror 7. By the way, in order to obtain a minute and stable light spot on the photosensitive drum 9, the laser beam emitted from the fiber array unit 4 needs to be in the transverse single mode. However, since a single mode optical fiber has a significantly small core diameter at a blue wavelength and it is difficult to form a semiconductor laser module that is stable with environmental temperature changes, a multimode fiber having a large core diameter is used as the optical fiber. FIG. 2 shows an optical fiber 14 used in the optical system of FIG. Since the core diameter 13 is a multimode fiber, it has a large diameter, and can stably guide laser light into the core even if the semiconductor laser module is deformed due to a change in environmental temperature. The laser light guided to the optical fiber is converted from a single mode to a multimode during the normal propagation, but the single mode laser light is maintained because the core diameter is small in the narrow portion 15. Will be.

[0006]

In the optical recording apparatus using the fiber array according to the present invention described above, even if a semiconductor laser having a shorter wavelength is used, an optical output that is stable against environmental temperature changes can be emitted from the optical fiber. A high-performance and stable optical recording device can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a laser printer optical system using a fiber array of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a multimode optical fiber provided with a constriction.

[Description of References] 1 ... Semiconductor laser module, 2 ... Semiconductor laser,
3 lens, 4 fiber array unit, 7 rotating polygon mirror, 8 scanning lens, 9 photosensitive drum

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plurality of semiconductor laser modules for guiding laser light emitted from a semiconductor laser to corresponding optical fibers are provided, and the plurality of optical fibers drawn from the plurality of semiconductor laser modules are arranged on a laser light emitting side. Bundled into an array to form a fiber array,
An optical recording apparatus for performing optical recording using a plurality of laser beams emitted in a line from the fiber array, wherein a constriction is provided in a core portion for transmitting light of the optical fiber.