Time domain modelling of sampled grating tunable lasers

Monolithic tunable lasers are inevitably complex, and this complexity makes the design and development of such devices by a traditional iterative fabrication and testing cycle very slow. Also, from a systems perspective, it is important to be aware of what a tunable laser will do under any operating condition within a range of temperatures. Some of the capabilities of a time-domain-modelling technique applied to sampled-grating distributed-Bragg-reflector tunable lasers are demonstrated. Results are presented for the static tuning of different devices and the effect of a simple design change (which can be easily effected using the model) is investigated