Abstract
The chapter provides a comprehensive overview over widely tunable laser diodes and includes a description of the different tuning mechanisms and relevant implementations: sampled grating- and superstructure grating-DBR lasers, Y-lasers, multiple peaks gratings and widely tunable filter lasers. The treatment covers fundamentals of the various solutions, typical performance characteristics, and control issues as well. The focus is primarily on edge-emitting semiconductor lasers; however, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and external cavity tunable lasers, integrated tunable laser modulators, and tunable laser subsystems are also contained.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
J. Buus, M.-C. Amann, D.J. Blumenthal, Tunable Laser Diodes and Related Optical Sources, 2nd edn. (Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2005). ISBN: 978-0-471-20816-7
B.R. Bennett, R.A. Soref, J.A. Del Alamo, Carrier-induced change in refractive index of InP, GaAs, and InGaAsP. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 30, 113–122 (1994)
J.-P. Weber, Optimization of the carrier-induced effective index change in InGaAsP waveguides – application to tunable Bragg filters. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 30, 1801–1816 (1994)
S.L. Chuang, Physics of Optoelectronic Devices, 2nd edn. (Wiley Interscience, Hoboken, NJ, 2009)
A. Yariv, M. Nakamura, Periodic structures for integrated optics. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-13, 233–253 (1977)
T.L. Koch, U. Koren, B.I. Miller, High-performance tunable 1.5 µm InGaAs/InGaAsP multiple quantum well distributed Bragg reflector lasers. Appl. Phys. Lett. 53, 1036–1088 (1988)
H. Debrégeas-Sillard, A. Vuong, F. Delorme, J. David, V. Allard, A. Bodéré, O. Legouezigou, F. Gaborit, J. Rotte, M. Goix, V. Voiriot, J. Jacquet, DBR module with 20 mW constant coupled output power over 16 nm (40 channels 50 GHz spaced). IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 13, 4–6 (2001)
V. Jayaraman, Z.-M. Chuang, L.A. Coldren, Theory, design, and performance of extended tuning range semiconductor lasers with sampled gratings. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 29, 1824–1834 (1993)
R. O'Dowd, S. O'Duill, G. Mulvihill, N. O'Gorman, Y. Yu, Frequency plan and wavelength switching limits for widely tunable semiconductor transmitters. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 7, 259–269 (2001)
B. Mason, J. Barton, G.A. Fish, L.A. Coldren, S.P. DenBaars, Design of sampled grating DBR lasers with integrated semiconductor optical amplifier. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 12, 762–764 (2000)
H. Debrégeas-Sillard, C. Fortin, A. Accard, O. Drisse, E. Derouin, F. Pommereau, C. Kazmierski, Non-linear effects analysis in DBR lasers: applications to DBR-SOA and new double Bragg-DBR. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 13, 1142–1149 (2007)
H. Ishii, H. Tanobe, F. Kano, Y. Tohmori, Y. Kondo, Y. Yoshikuni, Quasicontinuous wavelength tuning in super-structure-grating (SSG) DBR lasers. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 32, 433–441 (1996)
M. Gotoda, T. Nishimura, Y. Tokuda, Widely tunable SOA-integrated DBR laser with combination of sampled-grating and superstructure grating, Proc. 19th Internat. Semicond. Laser Conf. (ISLC'04), Matsue, Japan, 2004, paper SaA5
M. Schilling, W. Idler, E. Kühn, G. Laube, H. Schweizer, K. Wünstel, O. Hildebrand, Integrated interferometric injection laser. Novel fast and broad-band tunable monolithic light source. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 27, 1616–1624 (1991)
J.O. Wesström, G. Sarlet, S. Hammerfeldt, L. Lundqvist, P. Szabo, P.-J. Rigole, State-of-the-art performance of widely tunable modulated grating Y-branch lasers, Optial Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC'04), Anaheim, CA, USA, 2004, paper TuE2
M. Öberg, S. Nilsson, K. Streubel, J. Wallin, L. Bäckbom, T. Klinga, 74 nm wavelength tuning range of an InGaAsP/InP vertical grating assisted codirectional coupler laser with rear sampled grating reflector. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 5, 735–738 (1993)
Y. Gustafsson, S. Hammerfeldt, J. Hammersberg, M. Hassler, T. Hörman, M. Isaksson, J. Karlsson, D.E. Larsson, O.D. Larsson, L. Lundqvist, T. Lundström, M. Rask, P.-J. Rigole, E. Runeland, A. Saavedra, G. Sarlet, R. Siljan, P. Szabo, L. Tjemlund, O. Träskman, H. de Vries, J.-O. Wesström, C. Ögren, Record output power (25 mW) across C-band from widely tunable GCSR lasers without additional SOA. Electron. Lett. 39, 292–293 (2003)
T. Suzuki, H. Arimoto, T. Kitatani, A. Takei, T. Taniguchi, K. Shinoda, S. Tanaka, S. Tsuji, Wide-tuning (65 nm) semi-cooled (50 °C) operation of a tunable laser based on a novel widely tunable filter. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. and Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf. (OFC/NFOEC'11), Techn. Digest (Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2011), paper OWD7
A.J. Ward, D.J. Robbins, G. Busico, E. Barton, L. Ponnampalam, J.P. Duck, N.D. Whitbread, P.J. Williams, D.C.J. Reid, A.C. Carter, M.J. Wale, Widely tunable DS-DBR laser with monolithically integrated SOA: design and performance. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 11, 149–156 (2005)
H. Debrégeas-Sillard, C. Fortin, F. Pommereau, D. Drugeon, Y. Gottesman, O. Drisse, E. Derouin, N. Lagay, B. Rousseau, F. Martin, J. Landreau, C. Kazmierski, More than 40 nm tuning DBR-MMI-SOA with only one Bragg current control compatible with fast switching, Proc. 33rd Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'07), Berlin, Germany, 2007, paper 9.2.4
G. Sarlet, G. Morthier, R. Baets, Wavelength and mode stabilization of widely tunable SG-DBR and SSG-DBR lasers. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 11, 1351–1353 (1999)
R. Todt, T. Jacke, R. Meyer, J. Adler, R. Laroy, G. Morthier, M.-C. Amann, Sampled grating tunable twin-guide laser diodes with over 40 nm electronic tuning range. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 17, 2514–2516 (2005)
G. Sarlet, Tunable laser diodes for WDM communication – methods for control and characterisation, PhD thesis, University of Ghent and INTEC, Belgium, 2001
A. Uskov, J. Mørk, J. Mark, Wave mixing in semiconductor laser amplifiers due to carrier heating and spectral-hole burning. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 30, 1769–1781 (1994)
M.C. Larson, M. Bai, D. Bingo, N. Ramdas, S. Penniman, G.A. Fish, L.A. Coldren, Mode control of widely-tunable SG-DBR lasers, Proc. 28th Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'02), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002, poster P2.04
L. Ponnampalam, N.D. Whitbread, R. Barlow, G. Busico, A.J. Ward, J.P. Duch, D.J. Robbins, Dynamically controlled channel-to-channel switching in a full-band DS-DBR laser. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 42, 223–230 (2006)
J.E. Simsarian, L. Zhang, Wavelength locking a fast-switching tunable laser. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 16, 1745–1747 (2004)
H. Hatakeyama, K. Kudo, Y. Yokoyama, K. Naniwae, T. Sasaki, Wavelength-selectable microarray light sources for wide-band DWDM applications. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 8, 1341–1348 (2002)
H. Ishii, K. Kasaya, H. Oohashi, Y. Shibata, H. Yasaka, K. Okamoto, Widely wavelength-tunable DFB laser array integrated with funnel combiner. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 13, 1089–1094 (2007)
B. Pezeshki, E. Vail, J. Kubicky, G. Yoffe, S. Zou, J. Heanue, P. Epp, S. Rishton, D. Ton, B. Faraji, M. Emanuel, X. Hong, M. Sherback, V. Agrawal, C. Chipman, T. Razazan, 20 mW widely tunable laser module using DFB array and MEMS selection. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 14, 1457–1459 (2002)
S. Jatta, B. Kögel, M. Maute, K. Zogal, F. Riemenschneider, G. Böhm, M.-C. Amann, P. Meißner, Bulk-micromachined VCSEL at 1.55 µm with 76 nm single-mode continuous tuning range. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 21, 1822–1824 (2009)
J.D. Berger, Y. Zhang, J.D. Grade, H. Lee, S. Hrinya, H. Jerman, Widely tunable external cavity diode laser based on an MEMS electrostatic rotary actuator, Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. (OFC'01), Techn. Digest (Anaheim, CA, USA, 2001), paper TuJ2
O.K. Kwon, J.H. Kim, K.H. Kim, E.D. Sim, K.R. Oh, Widely tunable multichannel grating cavity laser. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 18, 1699–1701 (2006)
M.L. Nielsen, S. Sudo, K. Mizutani, T. Okamoto, K. Tsuruoka, K. Sato, K. Kudo, Integration of functional SOA on the gain chip of an external cavity wavelength tunable laser using etched mirror technology. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 13, 1104–1111 (2007)
S.H. Oh, K.S. Kim, J.J. Ju, M.-S. Kim, K.-H. Yoon, D.K. Oh, Y.-O. Noh, H.-J. Lee, Tunable external cavity laser employing uncooled superluminescent diode. Opt. Express 17, 10189–10194 (2009)
G. Jeong, J.H. Lee, M.Y. Park, C.Y. Kim, S.H. Cho, W. Lee, B.W. Kim, Over 26 nm wavelength tunable external cavity laser based on polymer waveguide platforms for WDM access networks. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 18, 2102–2104 (2006)
F.M. Soares, Z. Zhang, G. Przyrembel, M. Lauermann, M. Moehrle, N. Mettbach, C. Zawadzki, B. Zittermann, N. Keil, N. Grote, Hybrid photonic integration of InP-based laser diodes and polymer PLCs, Proc. 23rd Internat. Conf. Indium Phosphide Relat. Mater. (IPRM 2011), Berlin, Germany, 2011, paper Th-8.1.3
S. Matsuo, S.-H. Jeong, T. Segawa, H. Okamoto, Y. Kawaguchi, Y. Kondo, H. Suzuki, Y. Yoshikuni, Tunable laser using chirped ladder filter. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 13, 1122–1128 (2007)
R. Todt, S. Watanabe, Y. Deki, M. Takahashi, T. Takeuchi, S. Takaesu, T. Miyazaki, M. Horie, H. Yamazaki, Widely tunable resonated-ring-reflector lasers covering C- and L-bands, 33rd Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'07), Berlin, Germany, 2007, post-deadline paper PDP2.5
S. Matsuo, Y. Yoshikuni, T. Segawa, Y. Ohiso, H. Okamoto, A widely tunable optical filter using ladder-type structure. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 15, 1114–1116 (2003)
T. Segawa, S. Matsuo, T. Kakitsuka, T. Sato, Y. Kondo, R. Takahashi, Semiconductor double-ring resonator-coupled tunable laser for wavelength routing. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 7, 892–898 (2009)
E.J. Skogen, J.W. Raring, G.B. Morrison, C.S. Wang, V. Lal, M.L. Mašanovi, L.A. Coldren, Monolithically integrated active components: a quantum-well intermixing approach. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 11, 343–355 (2005)
J.W. Raring, L.A. Johansson, E.J. Skogen, M.N. Sysak, H.N. Poulsen, S.P. DenBaars, L.A. Coldren, 40 Gbit/s widely tunable low-drive-voltage electroabsorption-modulated transmitters. J. Lightw. Technol. 25, 239–248 (2007)
J.S. Barton, E.J. Skogen, M.L. Mašanovi, S.P. DenBaars, L.A. Coldren, A widely tunable high-speed transmitter using an integrated SGDBR laser-semiconductor optical amplifier and Mach–Zehnder modulator. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 9, 1113–1117 (2003)
J.S. Barton, M.L. Mašanovi, A. Tauke-Pedretti, E.J. Skogen, L.A. Coldren, Monolithically-integrated 40 Gbit/s widely-tunable transmitter using series push-pull Mach–Zehnder modulator SOA and sampled-grating DBR laser, Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. and Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf. (OFC/NFOEC'05), Techn. Digest (Anaheim, CA, USA, 2005), paper OTuM3
J.W. Raring, L.A. Johansson, E.J. Skogen, M.N. Sysak, H.N. Poulsen, S.P. DenBaars, L.A. Coldren, Single-chip 40 Gbit/s widely-tunable transceivers with integrated SG-DBR laser, QW EAM, UTC photodiode, and low confinement SOA, Proc. 20th Internat. Semicond. Laser Conf. (ISLC'06), Kohala Coast, HI, USA, 2006, paper TuA1
V. Lal, M.L. Mašanovi, J.A. Summers, G. Fish, D.J. Blumenthal, Monolithic wavelength converters for high-speed packet-switched optical networks. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 13, 49–57 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Debrégeas-Sillard, H. (2012). Widely Tuneable Laser Diodes. In: Venghaus, H., Grote, N. (eds) Fibre Optic Communication. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 161. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20517-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20517-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-20516-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-20517-0
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)