High-power 1550-nm distributed feedback lasers

Summary form only given. Due to their wavelength compatibility with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), 1550-nm distributed feedback (DFB) lasers have become key devices in a variety of analog and digital fiber communication systems. The possibility of achieving sufficient power directly from the DFB source to eliminate the need for an EDFA, while still maintaining low-noise and narrow-linewidth operation, is also very attractive in terms of cost-reduction in a variety of applications. In conjunction with commercially available analog/digital external modulators, high-power cw DFBs can greatly expand optical link lengths. Using an optimized loss grating DFB design to ensure stable single-mode operation, a 90 mW output power level has recently been reported at 1550 nm. 130 mW cw single-mode operation of an InGaAsP/lnP strained layer multiple quantum well (MQW) laser has recently been demonstrated at 1310 nm. In the following, we demonstrate >165 mW cw single-mode output powers from a 1550-nm DFB laser.