Abstract
The chapter covers In P-based laser diodes (1300–1650nm wavelength range) deployed as transmitter devices in today’s optical communication systems. Only discrete directly modulated devices are considered in this chapter which is followed by two other laser-related articles dealing specifically with ultra-fast and wavelength-tunable devices. In the first part, a description of basic laser structures and technology, of relevant gain materials and their impact on lasing properties, and of fundamental characteristics of Fabry–Pérot devices will be presented. The second part is devoted to single-wavelength lasers focusing on design rules and various implementations. Essentially, distributed feedback (DFB) devices are treated but other options such as the so-called "discrete mode" laser diodes will also be outlined. In the third part, surface-emitting laser diodes are addressed including vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) and horizontal cavity DFB structures designed for surface emission.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
R.N. Hall, G.E. Fenner, J.D. Kingsley, T.J. Soltys, R.O. Carlson, Coherent light emission from GaAs p–n junctions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 9, 366–368 (1962)
M.I. Nathan, W.P. Dumke, G. Burns, F.H. Dill, G.J. Lasher, Stimulated emission of radiation from GaAs p–n junction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 1, 62–64 (1962)
Z.I. Alferov, V.M. Andreev, V.I. Korolkov, E.L. Portnoi, D.N. Tretyakov, Injection properties of n-\(\textup{Al}_{{x}}\textup{Ga}_{{1-x}}\textup{As}\) p-GaAs heterojunctions. Sov. Phys. Semicond. 2, 843 (1969)
I. Hayashi, M.B. Panish, P.W. Foy, A low threshold room temperature injection laser. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-5, 210–211 (1969)
J.J Hsieh, Room temperature operation of GaInAsP/InP double heterostructure diode lasers emitting at 1.1 µm. Appl. Phys. Lett. 28, 283–285 (1976)
T. Yamamoto, K. Sakai, S. Akiba, Y. Suematsu, \(\textup{In}_{{1-x}}\textup{Ga}_{{x}}\textup{As}_{{y}}\textup{P}_{{1-y}}\)/InP DH lasers fabricated on InP(100) substrates. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-14, 95–98 (1978)
G.H.B. Thompson, Physics of Semiconductor Laser Devices (Wiley, New York, 1980). ISBN: 0-471-27685-5
N. Grote, The III–V materials for Infra-red devices, in Materials for Optoelectronics, ed. by M. Quillec (Kluwer Academic, Amsterdam, 1996), pp. 153–183
K. Utaka, K. Kobayashi, Y. Suematsu, Lasing characteristics of 1.5–1.6 µm GaInAsP/InP integrated twin-guide lasers with first-order distributed Bragg reflectors. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-17, 651–658 (1981)
K. Kadoiwa, K. Ono, H. Nishiguchi, K. Matsumoto, Y. Ohkura, T. Yagi, p-substrate partially inverted buried heterostructure distributed feedback laser diode performance improvement by inserting Zn diffusion-stopping layer. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 45, 7704–7708 (2006)
H. Sato, T. Tsuchuya, T. Kitatani, N. Takahashi, K. Oouchi, K. Nakahara, M. Aoki, Highly reliable 1.3 µm InGaAlAs buried heterostructure laser diode for 10GbE, Proc. 16th Internat. Conf. Indium Phosphide Relat. Mater. (IPRM 2004) Kagashima, Japan, 2004, pp. 731–733.
W. Feng, J.Q. Pan, L.F. Wang, J. Bian, B.J. Wang, F. Zhou, X. An, L.J. Zhao, H.L. Zhu, W. Wang, Fabrication of InGaAlAs MQW buried heterostructure lasers by narrow stripe selective MOVPE. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 40, 361–365 (2007)
Y. Matsui, H. Murai, S. Arahira, Y. Ogawa, A. Suzuki, Enhanced modulation bandwidth for strain-compensated InGaAlAs-InGaAsP MQW lasers. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 34, 1970–1978 (1998)
P.J.A. Thijs, E.A. Montie, T. van Dongen, Structures for improved 1.5 µm wavelength lasers grown by LP-OMVPE; InGaAs-InP strained-layer quantum wells a good candidate. J. Cryst. Growth 107, 731–740 (1991)
P.J.A. Thijs, J.J.M. Binsma, L.F. Tiemeijer, T. van Dongen, Improved performance 1.5 µm wavelength tensile and compressively strained InGaAs-InGaAsP quantum well lasers, 17th Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'91), Paris, Techn. Digest 2, 1991, pp. 31–38.
M.A. Newkirk, B.I. Miller, U. Koren, M.G. Young, M. Chien, R.M. Jopson, C.A. Burrus, 1.5 µm multi quantum-well semiconductor optical amplifier with tensile and compressively strained wells for polarization-independent gain. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 5, 406–408 (1993)
T.J. Badcock, H.Y. Liu, K.M. Groom, C.Y. Jin, M. Gutierrez, M. Hopkinson, D.J. Mowbray, M.S. Skolnick, 1.3 µm InAs/GaAs quantum-dot laser with low-threshold current density and negative characteristic temperature above room temperature. Electron. Lett. 42, 922–923 (2006)
G.H. Duan, A. Shen, A. Akrout, F. van Dijk, F. Lelarge, F. Pommereau, O. Le-Gouezigou, J.G. Provost, H. Gariah, High performance InP-based quantum dash semiconductor mode-locked lasers for optical communications. Bell Labs Tech. J. 14, 63–84 (2009)
C.S. Lee, W. Guo, D. Basu, P. Bhattacharya, High performance tunnel injection quantum dot comb laser. Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 101107 (2010)
M. Moehrle, H. Roehle, A. Sigmund, A. Suna, F. Reier, High-performance all-active tapered 1550 nm InGaAsP BH-FP lasers, Proc. 14th Internat. Conf. Indium Phosphide Relat. Mater. (IPRM 2002), Stockholm, 2002, pp. 27–30
S.W. Park, J.H. Han, Y.T. Han, S.S. Park, B.Y. Yoon, B.K. Kim, H.K. Sung, J.I. Song, Two-step laterally tapered spot-size convertor 1.55 µm laser diode having a high slope efficiency. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 18, 2138–2140 (2006)
H. Kobayashi, M. Ekawa, N. Okazaki, O. Aoki, S. Ogita, H. Soda, Tapered thickness MQW waveguide BH MQW lasers. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 6, 1080–1081 (1994)
A. Guermache, V. Voiriot, N. Bouche, F. Lelarge, D. Locatelli, R.M. Capella, J. Jacquet, 1 W fiber coupled power InGaAsP/InP 14xx pump laser for Raman amplification. Electron. Lett. 40, 1535–1536 (2004)
M. Haverkamp, G. Kochem, K. Boucke, E. Schulze, H. Roehle, 1.1 W four-wavelength Raman pump using BH lasers, Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. and Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf. (OFC/NFOEC'07), Techn. Digest (Anaheim, CA, USA, 2007), paper OMK7
H. Kogelnik, C.V. Shank, Coupled-wave theory of distributed feedback lasers. J. Appl. Phys. 43, 2327–2335 (1972)
M. Kamp, J. Hofmann, F. Schaefer, M. Reinhard, M. Fischer, T. Bleuel, J.P. Reithmaier, A. Forchel, Lateral coupling – a material independent way to complex coupled DFB lasers. Opt. Mater. 17, 19–25 (2001)
H. Burkhard, S. Hansmann, Transmitters, in Fiber Optic Communication Devices, ed. by N. Grote, H. Venghaus (Springer, Berlin, 2001), pp. 71–116
G.P. Agrawal, A.H. Bobeck, Modeling of distributed-feedback semiconductor lasers with axially-varying parameters. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 24, 2407–2414 (1988)
A.J. Lowery, A. Keating, C.N. Murtonen, Modeling the static and dynamic behavior of quarter-wave-shifted DFB lasers. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 28, 1874–1883 (1992)
A.K. Verma, M. Steib, Y.L. Ha, T. Sudo, 25 Gbps 1.3 µm DFB laser for 10–25 km transmission in 100 GbE systems, Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. and Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf. (OFC/NFOEC'09), Techn. Digest (San Diego, CA, USA, 2009), paper OThT2
G.P. Li, T. Makino, R. Moore, N. Puetz, K.-W. Leong, H. Lu, Partly gain-coupled 1.55 µm strained-layer multiquantum-well DFB laser. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 29, 1736–1742 (1993)
J. Kreissl, W. Brinker, E. Lenz, T. Gaertner, W. Rehbein, S. Bauer, B. Sartorius, Isolator-free directly modulated complex-coupled DFB lasers for low cost applications, Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. (OFC'05), Techn. Digest (Anaheim, CA, USA, 2005), vol. 4, pp. 3–4
J. Kreissl, U. Troppenz, W. Rehbein, T. Gaertner, P. Harde, M. Radziunas, 40 Gbit/s directly modulated passive feedback laser with complex-coupled DFB section, Proc. 33rd Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'07), Berlin, 2007, paper We.8.1.4
M. Moehrle, A. Sigmund, A. Suna, L. Moerl, W. Fuerst, A. Dounia, W.D. Molzow, High single-mode yield, tapered 1.55 µm DFB lasers for CWDM applications, Proc. 31st Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'05), Glasgow, UK, 2005, paper Tu 4.5.4
L. Moerl, M. Moehrle, W. Brinker, A. Sigmund, N. Grote, Tapered 1550 nm DFB lasers with low feedback sensitivity, Proc. 32th Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'06), Cannes, France, 2006, paper Mo3.4.3
M. Moehrle, W. Brinker, C. Wagner, G. Przyrembel, A. Sigmund, W.D. Molzow, First complex coupled 1490 nm CSDFB lasers: High yield, low feedback sensitivity, and uncooled 10 Gbit/s modulation, Proc. 35th Europ. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC'09), Vienna, Austria, 2009, paper We 8.1.2
C. Herbert, D. Jones, A. Kaszubowska, B. Kelly, M. Rensing, J. O'Carroll, P.M. Anandarajah, P. Perry, L.P. Barry, J. O'Gorman, Discrete mode lasers for communication applications. IET J. Optoelectron. 3, 1–17 (2009)
R. Phelan, B. Kelly, J. O'Carroll, C. Herbert, A. Duke, J. O'Gorman, -40 °C < T < 95 °C mode-hop-free operation of uncooled AlGaInAs-MQW discrete-mode laser diode with emission at λ = 1.3 µm. Electron. Lett. 45, 43–45 (2009)
B. Kelly, R. Phelan, D. Jones, C. Herbert, J. O'Carroll, M. Rensing, J. Wendelboe, C.B. Watts, A. Kaszubowska-Anandarajah, P. Perry, C. Guignard, L.P. Barry, J. O'Gorman, Discrete mode laser diodes with very narrow linewidth emission. Electron. Lett. 43, 1282–1283 (2007)
K. Iga, Surface-emitting laser – its birth and generation of new optoelectronics field. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 6, 1201–1215 (2000)
F. Koyama, S. Kinoshita, K. Iga, Room-temperature continuous wave lasing characteristics of GaAs vertical cavity surface-emitting laser. Appl. Phys. Lett. 55, 221–222 (1989)
S. Nakagawa, E. Hall, G. Almuneau, J.K. Kim, D.A. Buell, H. Kroemer, L.A. Coldren, 1.55 µm InP-lattice-matched VCSELs with AlGaAsSb-AlAsSb DBR. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 7, 224–230 (2001)
M. Müller, W. Hofmann, G. Böhm, M.-C. Amann, Short-cavity long-wavelength VCSELs with modulation-bandwidth in excess of 15 GHz. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 21, 1615–1617 (2009)
W. Hofmann, C. Chase, M. Müller, Y. Rao, C. Grasse, G. Böhm, M.-C. Amann, C. Chang-Hasnain, Long-wavelength high-contrast grating vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 22, 415–422 (2010)
C. Chase, Y. Rao, W. Hofmann, C. Chang-Hasnain, 1550-nm high contrast grating VCSEL. Opt. Express 18, 9358–9365 (2010)
M. Ortsiefer, R. Shau, G. Böhm, F. Köhler, G. Abstreiter, M.-C. Amann, Low-resistance InGa(Al)As tunnel junctions for long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 39, 1727–1729 (2000)
K. Yashiki, N. Suzuki, K. Fukatsu, T. Anan, H. Hatakeyama, M. Tsuji, 1.1 µm-range high-speed tunnel junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 19, 1883–1885 (2007)
E. Kapon, A. Sirbu, Long-wavelength VCSELs: Power – efficient answer. Nat. Photon. 3, 27–29 (2009)
W. Hofmann, M. Müller, A. Nadtochiy, C. Meltzer, A. Mutig, G. Böhm, J. Rosskopf, D. Bimberg, M.-C. Amann, C. Chang-Hasnain, 22-Gbit/s long wavelength VCSELs. Opt. Express 17, 17547–17554 (2009)
M. Ortsiefer, R. Shau, G. Böhm, F. Köhler, M.-C. Amann, Room-temperature operation of index-guided 1.55 µm InP-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. Electron. Lett. 36, 437–438 (2000)
N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, B. Hall, G. Guryanov, M.H Hu, X.S. Liu, M.J. Li, R. Bhat, C.E. Zah, Long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers on InP with lattice matched AlGaInAs–InP DBR grown by MOCVD. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 11, 990–998 (2005)
A. Mereuta, V. Iakovlev, A. Caliman, A. Syrbu, P. Royo, A. Rudra, E. Kapon, InAlGaAs – AlGaAs wafer fused VCSELs emitting at 2 µm wavelength. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 20, 24–26 (2008)
A. Syrbu, A. Mereuta, V. Iakovlev, A. Caliman, P. Royo, E. Kapon, 10 Gbps VCSELs with high single mode output in 1310 nm and 1550 nm wavelength bands, Conf. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. and Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf. (OFC/NFOEC'08), Techn. Digest (San Diego, CA, USA, 2008), paper OThS2
A. Mircea, A. Caliman, V. Iakovlev, A. Mereuta, G. Suruceanu, C.A. Berseth, P. Royo, A. Syrbu, E. Kapon, Cavity mode – gain peak tradeoff for 1320 nm wafer-fused VCSELs with 3-mW single-mode emission power and 10 Gbit/s modulation speed up to 70 °C. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 19, 1221–123 (2007)
H. Riechert, A. Ramakrishnan, G. Steinle, Development of InGaAsN-based 1.3 µm VCSELs. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 17, 892–897 (2002)
J.A. Lott, N.N. Ledentsov, V.M. Ustinov, N.A. Maleev, A.E. Shukov, A.R. Kovsh, M.V. Maximov, B.V. Volovik, Z.I. Alferov, D. Bimberg, InAs-InGaAs quantum dot VCSEL's. Electron. Lett. 36, 1384–1385 (2000)
P. Dowd, S.R. Johnson, S.A. Field, M. Adamcyk, S.A. Chaparro, J. Joseph, K. Hilgers, M.P. Horning, K. Shiralagi, Y.H. Zhang, Long wavelength GaAsP/GaAs/GaAsSb VCSELs on GaAs substrates for communication applications. Electron. Lett. 39, 978–988 (2003)
N. Yamamoto, K. Akahane, S. Gozu, A. Ueta, N. Ohtani, 1.55 µm-waveband emissions from Sb-based quantum-dot vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structures fabricated on GaAs substrate. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 45, 3423–3426 (2006)
J. Jewell, L. Graham, M. Crom, K. Maranowski, J. Smith, T. Fanning, M. Schnoes, Commercial GaInNAs VCSELs grown by MBE. phys. stat. sol. (c) 5, 2951–2956 (2008)
M. Laemmlin, G. Fiol, M. Kuntz, F. Hopfer, A. Mutig, N.N. Ledentsov, A.R. Kovsh, C. Schubert, A. Jacob, A. Umbach, D. Bimberg, Quantum dot based photonic devices at 1.3 µm: Direct modulation, mode-locking, SOAs and VCSELs. phys. stat. sol. (c) 3, 391–394 (2006)
M. Moehrle, J. Kreissl, W.D. Molzow, G. Przyrembel, C. Wagner, A. Sigmund, L. Moerl, N. Grote, Ultra-low 1490 nm surface-emitting BH-DFB laser diode with integrated monitor photodiode, Proc. 22th Internat. Conf. Indium Phosphide Relat. Mater. (IPRM 2010), Takamatsu, Japan, 2010, pp. 55–58
M. Moehrle, J. Kreissl, A. Sigmund, G. Przyrembel, N. Grote, V. Plickert, I. Schlosser, K. Droegemüller, T. Neuner, 1490 nm surface emitting DFB laser diodes operated by VCSEL driver ICs, Proc. 17th OptoElectron. Commun. Conf. (OECC 2012), Busan, Korea, 2012 (in press)
K. Adachi, K. Shinoda, T. Fukamachi, T. Shiota, T. Kitatani, K. Hosomi, Y. Matsuoka, T. Sugawara, M. Aoki, A 1.3 µm lens-integrated horizontal-cavity surface-emitting laser with direct and highly efficient coupling to optical fibers, Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. and Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf. (OFC/NFOEC'09), Techn. Digest (San Diego, CA, USA, 2009), paper JThA31
K. Adachi, K. Shinoda, T. Shiota, T. Fukamachi, T. Kitatani, K. Hosomi, Y. Matsuoka, T. Sugawara, M. Aoki, 100 °C, 25 Gbit/s direct modulation of 1.3 µm surface emitting laser, Conf. Lasers Electro-Opt. (CLEO/QELS 2010), Techn. Digest (San Jose, USA, 2010), paper CME4
L. Vaissie, O.V. Smolski, A. Mehta, E.G. Johnson, High efficiency surface-emission laser with subwavelength antireflection structure. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 17, 732–734 (2005)
P. Modh, J. Backlund, J. Bengtsson, A. Larsson, N. Shimada, T. Suharal, Multifunctional gratings for surface-emitting lasers: Design and implementation. Appl. Opt. 42, 4847–4854 (2003)
G. Witjaksono, S. Li, J.L. Lee, D. Botez, W.K. Chan, Single-lobe, surface-normal beam surface emission from second-order distributed feedback lasers with half-wave grating phase. Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 5365–5367 (2003)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Grote, N., Möhrle, M., Hofmann, W. (2012). Laser Components. 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_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20517-0_3
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)