Design of a widely tunable modulated grating Y-branch laser using the additive Vernier effect for improved super-mode selection

Abstract

We present the design of a Modulated Grating Y-branch laser containing a splitter and two multi-peak reflectors. High selectivity is achieved using the additive Vernier effect.Widely tunable lasers find an increasing number of applications since they can contribute to flexibility in WDM systems. 1 The GCSR (Grating-assisted codirectional Coupler with Sampled Reflector) 2 and the SSG-DBR (Super Structure GratingDistributed Bragg Reflector) 3 lasers are two types of monolithic edge-emitting lasers based on multi-peak modulated reflector gratings such as the SSG or the sampled grating. Also the Modulated Grating Y-branch laser 4 (MGY) presented here ( Figure 1) is based on multi-peak reflectors and can be designed to cover the entire C-band (192)(193)(194)(195)(196). In our design the light is split by the use of a 60-µm long, 7-µm wide Multi-Mode Interferometer (MMI). Then 46-µm long S-bends with a 130-µm radius of curvature are used to increase the separation between the waveguides. Each arm ends with a 500-µm long multi-peak reflector with an effective coupling coefficient of 30/cm. In one arm there is an 80-µm long phase section that can be used to adjust the phase difference between the reflections. A common phase section of the same length is used to align the cavity mode with the reflector peaks. The design is to be manufactured as an InP/InGaAsP buried hetero structure, butting a 400 µm multi-quantum-well gain section to the passive sections made in a 0.35-µm thick InGaAsP layer with a photo-luminescence wavelength of 1.39 µm.The MGY is similar to the SSG-DBR in that it is based on the Vernier effect using two multi-peak reflection gratings. The SSG-DBR utilizes two such gratings, one at each end of the cavity. The reflection peak separations of the two gratings are slightly different and the Vernier effect is used to select one reflection peak for lasing. By tuning the two reflection sections and a phase section, any frequency within a wide range can be reached. One disadvantage with the SSG-DBR laser is that the output light has to pass through the front reflector, which inevitably suffers from free carrier absorption when tuned. This gives a higher power variation. The MGY is also comparable to the GCSR laser in the sense that it has all tuning sections on the same side of the gain section, so that the power can exit the cavity without absorption. Instead of using the Vernier effect, the GCSR laser uses a widely tunable coupler transmission peak to efficiently select one peak for lasing. One disadvantage for the GCSR is that it is typically a rather long chip.

Design of a fiber-optic interrogator module for telecommunication satellites

“…Thereby the spectra of both resonators can be shifted against each other which allows tobring different modes of the resonators to overlap. By this socalled Vernier effect [11] wavelength tuning is achieved. Additionally a semiconductor optical amplifier is placed behind the MGY structure to increase the output power.…”

Compressive sensing optical coherence tomography using randomly accessible lasers

“…The optical frequency is addressed by changing the refractive index of the individual resonators through local heating 4 or carrier injection. 13 This causes an optical mode-hop and can change the output of the laser by as much as 40 nm. Unlike continuously tunable lasers, these lasers, known as Vernier tunable lasers, can address optical frequencies in any desired order making them versatile tools for compressive sensing.…”

Multi-species gas sensing using monolithic widely tuneable laser diodes

“…In the MG-Y laser this is overcome by placing the two comb reflectors on the same side of the cavity when put in the Y-branch configuration, as illustrated in Fig. 3.13, this is the concept of the MG-Y laser [6]. In the MG-Y laser the different functions are separated into different sections (Fig 3).…”