Wide temperature range operation of a 1.3-/spl mu/m beam-expander integrated gain-coupled distributed feedback laser diode

Highly efficient fiber-laser coupling and wide-temperature-range (WTR) operation are desirable for the light sources used in low-cost optical modules. To improve the optical coupling efficiency, the integration of a beam-expander (BEX) with laser diodes has been extensively studied. Moreover, a gain-coupled DFB-LD incorporating a current blocking grating has demonstrated high single-mode stability over a wide temperature range. Thus, the BEX integrated gain-coupled DFB-LD is quite promising for use in low-cost high-bit-rate optical modules. In this paper, we report a BEX integrated gain-coupled DFB laser with a current-blocking grating that can operate over a temperature range of -40 to 85/spl deg/C.