Design of widely tunable semiconductor three-branch lasers

Author

Kuznetsov, Mark

Author_Institution

Micracor Inc., Acton, MA, USA

Volume

12

Issue

12

fYear

1994

fDate

12/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2100

Lastpage

2106

Abstract

We describe the design and operating principles of the new, widely tunable, three-branch semiconductor Y3-lasers, which we have demonstrated recently. This multibranch tunable laser structure is formed by a cascade of Y-junctions and uses a geometrical tuning leverage to achieve wide-range discrete frequency tuning. Y3-lasers have demonstrated experimentally a tuning range of 45 nm (5.6 THz) and access to 50 frequency channels, with potential access to more than a 100 channels. Among the important issues discussed in this paper are the Y3-laser structure, mode selection of the Y3-laser filter, laser side-mode suppression, number of accessible channels, tuning range, and the tuning mechanism of the Y3-laser. A specific design example is also presented. The simplicity of Y3-laser fabrication and the powerful digital channel-access control make these lasers important electronically-tunable sources for multichannel wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) optical communication networks

Keywords

electro-optical modulation; laser modes; laser theory; laser tuning; optical communication equipment; optical design techniques; optical fibre communication; semiconductor lasers; wavelength division multiplexing; 5.6 THz; WDM optical communication networks; Y-junction cascade; Y3-laser filter; digital channel-access control; electronically-tunable sources; frequency channels; geometrical tuning; laser side-mode suppression; mode selection; multibranch tunable laser structure; multichannel wavelength-division-multiplexed optical communication networks; operating principles; semiconductor Y3-lasers; tuning range; wide-range discrete frequency tuning; widely tunable semiconductor three-branch laser design; Frequency; Laser modes; Laser tuning; Optical design; Optical device fabrication; Optical filters; Optical tuning; Quantum cascade lasers; Semiconductor lasers; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.350621

Filename

350621