2 mW CW singlemode operation of a tunable 1550 nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser with 50 nm tuning range

Vakhshoori, D.; Tayebati, P.; Lu, Chih-Cheng; Azimi, M.; Wang, P.; Zhou, Jiang‐Huai; Canoglu, Ergun

doi:10.1049/el:19990661

Cited by 85 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Such sources are based on a movable reflective filter. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) equipped with multilayer dielectric mirrors have been developed by Bandwidth 9 Inc. [2] and Core Tek Inc. [3]. However, VCSELs suffer from the disadvantage of low output power compared with stripe-emitting devices, and require simultaneous development of the gain block and tuning mechanism.…”

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confidence: 99%

External cavity laser with a vertically etched silicon blazed grating

Lohmann¹,

Syms²

2003

IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.

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Abstract-An external cavity laser based on a stripe waveguide semiconductor optical amplifier, a ball lens, and a blazed diffraction grating fabricated by vertical deep reactive ion etching of silicon is demonstrated. Bandpass characteristics for a 12th-order grating are given. Tuning of an external cavity laser over a 120-nm spectral range is demonstrated, with a maximum single-mode fiber-coupled power of 1 mW and side-mode suppression ratio of 30 dB.Index Terms-External cavity, grating, microelectromechanical systems, semiconductor laser. GREAT interest has been shown in frequency-tunable narrow line sources for optical communications [1]. One possible approach is to use a monolithic source such as a multisection distributed Bragg reflector laser. An alternative is offered by an external cavity source, which may allow a simpler and more stable tuning algorithm. Such sources are based on a movable reflective filter. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) equipped with multilayer dielectric mirrors have been developed by Bandwidth 9 Inc. [2] and Core Tek Inc. [3]. However, VCSELs suffer from the disadvantage of low output power compared with stripe-emitting devices, and require simultaneous development of the gain block and tuning mechanism.External cavity lasers based on conventional stripe-waveguide semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and piezoelectrically actuated blazed gratings were originally developed in the late 1980s by BTRL [4] and CNET [5]. More recently, SOAs have been combined with mirrors [6], [7] and gratings [8] on micromachined electrostatic actuators by NTT and Iolon, respectively. The advantages of this approach are a reduction in size and cost, combined with an improvement in stability and reliability.The most common geometries for an external cavity laser based on an SOA are the Littrow and Littman/Metcalf configurations, shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b), respectively. The former involves a single pass through a blazed grating, and the latter a double pass through a reflection grating via a further external mirror. In each case, rotation of a key component about a well-chosen virtual pivot point can avoid longitudinal mode hopping. Littrow cavities with conventionally fabricated blazed gratings were used by BTRL, and Littman cavities by Iolon. In this letter, we demonstrate a laser based on a vertically etched silicon blazed grating arranged in a Littrow cavity. The fabrication approach used may allow eventual integration of the grating with a suitable positioning actuator. In the Littrow configuration, retro-reflection occurs when , where is an integer order, is the optical wavelength, is the grating period, and is the incidence angle. Gratings were designed for operation at m, with different values of (1.5 2, 3 2, 6 2, and 9 2 m, corresponding to 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 12th order at ). The fabrication process was very simple. A 3-m-thick layer of resist was deposited, patterned into a staircase layout by contact lithography, and hard-baked to act as a surface mask. The silicon was then...

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confidence: 99%

External cavity laser with a vertically etched silicon blazed grating

Lohmann¹,

Syms²

2003

IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.

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“…1(b), we require (5) Equation (5) can be satisfied by careful choice of the ratio . In the special case when (i.e., for similar beams), is the solution of the cubic equation: (6) Equation (6) may be solved numerically, to give . This ratio may be determined to high accuracy in a vertically etched MEMS structure by assuming equal widths for the portal and cantilever beams, and setting at mask-making.…”

Section: Flexure Mount For Synchronous Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The width of all flexures was 6 , and the width of the strut linking the portal beams was 18 . The beams in the portal frame were spaced apart by a distance of 50…”

Section: Realisation Of Laser Tuning Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An alternative is a deformable membrane mirror, as demonstrated by Stanford University, Stanford, CA, [5]. Finally, Core Tek, Inc., have developed a movable mem- brane, preshaped by stress into a spherical surface, which reduces diffraction loss [6]. Improved external lasers may be constructed using conventional laser diodes, provided the cavity contains a frequency selective element such as a grating.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MOEMS tuning element for a Littrow external cavity laser

Syms

Lohmann

2003

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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Abstract-A miniature grating-tunable external cavity laser diode constructed using microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS) technology is described. The tuning element is a vertically etched blazed grating mounted on a compound flexure, which consists of a cantilever in series with a portal frame. The flexure is deflected using comb electrostatic drives to rotate and translate the grating. The tuning element is prototyped using deep reactive ion etching of bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material. Interferometric measurements of electromechanical performance are presented, and departures from the ideal behavior are identified. Electrostatic tuning of a Littrow external cavity laser over a range of 20 nm using a 50-V drive is demonstrated.[1000]Index Terms-External cavity, grating, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS), semiconductor laser.

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“…Electrically or optically pumped VCSELs combined with MEMS technology offer an ideal solution for wide wavelength tuning with mode-hop free emission. 3,4 However, this solution requires a complex processing 5 and is limited by their fragility. Furthermore, these mechanical systems exhibit a relatively low switching speed which depends on the MEMS structure size (few ms).…”

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confidence: 99%