Tailored DFB laser properties by individually chirped gratings using bent waveguides

DFB lasers with continuously and arbitrarily chirped gratings of ultrahigh spatial precision are implemented by a method we proposed recently, using bent waveguides on homogeneous grating fields. Choosing individual bending functions we generate special chirping functions and obtain additional degrees of freedom to tailor and improve specific device performances. We present two applications for lasers showing several improved device properties and the effectiveness of our method. First, we implement continuously distributed phase-shifted lasers, revealing a considerably reduced photon pile-up, higher single-longitudinal mode stability, higher output power, lower linewidth, and higher yield than conventional abruptly phase-shifted lasers. Second, a novel tuning principle is applied in chirped multiple-section DFB lasers, showing 5.5-nm wavelength tuning, without any gaps, maintaining high side-mode suppression