Broadly tunable external cavity laser diodes with staggered thickness multiple quantum wells

Widely tunable low-threshold current laser diodes fabricated from an engineered multiple-quantum-well (MQW) gain structure consisting of three compressively strained In/sub 0.2/Ga/sub 0.8/As wells of different thicknesses are reported. Using a grating in an external cavity, a continuous-wave tuning range of 70 nm (911-981 nm) is measured for a 155-μm semiconductor cavity length device at a current of 32 mA. This is the lowest reported bias current for a semiconductor laser with this broad a tuning range. A maximum continuous wave tuning of 80 nm (901-981 nm) has been measured at a bias current of 95 mA. At long wavelengths, a suppression of amplified spontaneous emission and preferential population of the lowest energy well were observed.