1.3p.m SLMQW DFB lasers with high Laser results.

The typical CW characteristics of a DFB BRS laser

quantum efficiencyfor -40 - 85°C operation
B. Fernier, F. Gerard, P. Pagnod, G. Michaud,
G. Ripoche, G. Vendrome a n d R.M. Capella
Indexing terms: Distributed feedback lasers, Semiconductor
quantum wells
are shown in Fig. 1. An output power of lOmW is achieved over
the whole temperature range. At 85°C the threshold current is
35mA and the external efficiency is 0.21mWimA (at room tem-
perature the corresponding values are 5.8mA and 0.53mW/mA,
respectively). The device characteristics, even at 8S°C, are highly
reproducible from device to device as a result of the processing
uniformity. At 85"C, results on 10 chips shown in Fig. 2 show low
dispersion of threshold currents (0= f3mA) and of external quan-
tum efficiency (0= H).03mW/mA).

The authors report 1 . 3 DFB ~ lasers operating in the 4 0

- 85°C temperature range without a thermo-electric cooler. At
85°C the threshold current is 35mA and quantum efficiency is as
6
high as 0.2lmW/mA. In a 2.5GbiUs system, measurements with a E 32 3 ~ 62m A
highly dispersive fibre indicate a transmission penalty below
0.3dB up to 75°C.

Introduction: Cost reduction and high performance are necessary

for the successful industrialisation of optoelectronic devices. For
low-cost applications, devices operating without a thermo-electnc - . . . . . . . . . . .
cooler (TEC), with low threshold current and with a well-control-
led output spectrum over a wide temperature range (4 - 85°C)
a 1 3 5 7 9
are required. In particular, DFB lasers, having lower chup than
FP lasers, will be widely used for many intermediate and long dis-
tance applications for data rates up to 2.5GbiVs.
6
Wide temperature operation for F P lasers using strained layer Eo3
2 0 16 2 0 0 3 mWlmA
multiquantum well (SLMQW) structures was demonstrated sev-
eral years ago [l - 21; however, DFB operation with large single- E.0 2
x
mode ratio suppression (SMSR) has been reported only recently C
U

over the whole temperature range at 1.3pn emission wavelength $0 1

[3 - 41. In this Letter we report improved characteristics of 1 . 3 ~ c
'c

DFB lasers working over a 125°C temperature range with an .

SMSR of -40dB. 2.SGbit.k system measurements have been car- zoo
ried out up to 75°C to evaluate the temperature behaviour of b 1 3 5 7 9
chip number
these devices.
Fig. 2 CW threshold current and quantum efficiency at 85°C for 10
chips mounted p-side up
Design: High temperature operation requires the use of lasers with a CW threshold current
a low threshold current and high quantum efficiency. To minimise b Quantum efficiency
the threshold current at high temperature, we use an SLMQW
structure with a h g h optical confmement. The active layer is made Compared to previous results reported on a 9 SLMQW struc-
of six compressive strained quaternary quantum wells (0.6%) sepa- ture having a similar optical confinement and made with the same
rated by lOnm thick lattice-matched quaternary barriers with a laser process, we observe a strong reduction in threshold current
large energy band gap to minimise carrier recombination (1.1Op1-1 (42mA at 85°C for a 9 SLMQW [3]). This is in good agreement
equivalent A). A coupling coefficient of 6 O m - l is used to provide with results also reported on 1.SSpn lasers [2] and can be
DFB operation for large negative or positive detuning between the explained by the reduction of the optical losses in the quantum
emission wavelength and the gain peak. High and low reflectivity

-
wells, which is the dominant factor for compressive strained
coatings are deposited on the rear and front facets of the devices structures.
to increase the quantum eficiency and minimise the current con-
sumption at 6mW output facet power. Photoluminescence has
been determined to provide a lOnm negative detuning at room
temperature. The laser technology, based on a BRS structure 40
made with a standard 2in wafer process, has already been
described [4 - 51. The wafers are cleaved mto 3 0 0 long
and mounted p side up on an AlN submount.
15
~ lasers

m L
U. 20

5
E 10
L
6
,5
Cl

-
c
3
Q

2 5
-40 10
temperature ,"c
60

Pig. 3 Singlemode suppression ratio and wavelength detuning against

temperature

The output spectrum has been measured in the whole tempera-

0 ture range. An SMSR around 40dB is demonstrated in the whole
temperature range on several chips showing a detuning ranging
drive current, mA from 10 to -25nm over the gven temperature range (Fig. 3). Even
Fig. 1 CW characteristic of a 1 . 3 DFB
~ laser at different tempera- with this large detuning at 85"C, all chips exhibit similar DFB
tures behaviour. This can be attnbuated to the broadening of the gain
2174 ELECTRONICS LEDERS 7th December 1995 Vol. 31 No. 25
curve at high temperature. The typical wavelength shift with tem-
perature of the DFB mode (emission wavelength) is 0 . 0 8 d " C
and is quite compatible with typical outdoor operation (specifica-
tions: 1280 - 1335nm for 4 0 85°C).
~
1 0-6
168
cc
w G. Rankin, L.B. Aronson, T.R. Ranganath,
m W.R. Trutna. Jr. a n d D.W. Dolfi
.^
1 o ' " t . I . I . I . I . I
-35 -3 3 -3 1
Pin,dBm
Fig. 4 BER measurements at 25 and 75 "C
Curves are for back to back transmission with 250ps of dispersive
fibre
- back to back
.... ....... with fibre
System results: We tested the laser chips under standard STM 16
transmission conditions at 2.5GbiUs with an N R Z PRBS (2*3 1) ~
pattern. The laser facet power was modulated with an 8% extinc-
tion ratio with an average facet power of 3.3mW. The laser tem-
perature, directly measured from the peak wavelength, is presently
limited to 75°C by the setup itself. At 25"C, the sensitivity is
-31.4dBm for a BER of lWo. For temperatures between 25 and
75"C, we observe that the back to back sensitivity remains almost
constant (0.3dB). To evaluate the wavelength dispersion effect
around 1.3pn, a specific fibre with a high negative total dispersion
of 245ps was used and 0.3dB of dispersion penalty was achieved
over the whole temperature range (Fig. 4). This result indicates
that there is a good margin concerning today's system applications
using 1 . 3 DFB ~ lasers at 622Mbitis.
Conclusion: We have fabricated and characterised 1 . 3 DFB ~
lasers working over the temperature range of 4 0 - 85°C with a
singlemode ratio in the range of 40dB. At 85°C the threshold cur-
*
rent is 32 3mA and the external quantum efficiency is 0.16 f
0.03WIA. System measurements at 2.5Gbitis between 25 and 75°C
show almost no penalty (<0.3dB) with a highly dispersive fibre.
0 IEE 1995 5 October 1995
Electronics Letters Online No: 19951478
B. Fernier, F. Gerard, P. Pagnod, G. Michaud, G. Ripoche and
G. Vendrome (Alcatel Alsthom Recherche, 91460 Marcoussis, France)
R.M. Capella (Alcatel Optronics, 91625 Nozuy, France)
References
1 BINSMA, J.J.M., TIEMEIJER, L.F., and VAN DONGEN, T.:
THIJS, P.J.A,
'Improved performance 1.5pm wavelength tensile and
compressively strained InGaAs-InGaAsP quantum well lasers'.
Proc. ECOC91, Paris, France, 1991, pp. 31-38
2 MAYER, H.P., FERNIER, B., and SIMES, R.: 'Low-cost high performance
lasers for FITL,FTH applications, Proc. ECOC95, Brussels,
Belgium, 1995, Paper We A3.1, pp. 529-536
3 FURUSHIMA, Y., SASAKI, Y., MURAKAMI, T., HASUMI, T., ENOKIDANI, J.,
TOMIDA, s., and TAKANO, s.: 'Wide temperature range operation of
1 . 3 ~strained MQW U4-shifted DFB LDs for 2.5Gbis
transmission modules without temperature control'. Proc.
ECOC95, Brussels, Belgium, 1995, Paper We A3.2, pp. 537-540
ELECTRONICS LE77ERS 7th December 1995 Vol. 31
4 FERNIER, B., LE GOUEZIGOU, L., MATABON, M., PAGNOD, P ,
RIPOCHE, G., VENDROME, G., and LAUBE, G.: ' 1 . 3 SLMQW
~ DFB
lasers for 4 0 to +85OC operation'. Proc. ECOC95, Brussels,
Belgium, 1995, Paper We A3.3, pp. 541-544
5 SIMES, R., CAPELLA, R.M., FERNIER, B., and MAYER, H.P.: 'Leading-
edge optoelectronic device production using two-inch technology'.
InP and Related Compounds, Japan, May 1995, pp. 10-13
Agile, tunable, chirped laser with low
background emission
Indexing terms: Acousto-opticJilters,Semiconductorjunction lasers
A compact tunable laser based on an acousto-optic filter is
described. Rapid (< 10ms) wavelength scans across a 124nm band
centred at 15361x11are achieved with a signal peak to background
noise ratio exceeding 60dB.
Introduction: To test optical components it is desirable to have a
light source and receiver that permit rapid scanning over the wave-
length range of interest. One way to achieve this is with a broad-
band source and a frequency selective receiver, such as a scanning
monochromator. Described here is a laser that forms the basis of
an alternative scheme: a fast-scanning, high purity source to be
used with a broadband receiver.
The tuning speed is achieved with an acousto-optic tunable fil-
ter (AOTF). To explore the performance of a minimal system we
have used a single section filter, which Doppler shifts (chirps) light
passing through it. Previous workers have also examined the
behavior of chirped lasers, but they have used bulk acousto-optic
fdters [l, 21, whereas we have used an integrated-opticdevice since
such technology lends itself to the inclusion of multiple filter sec-
tions and the requisite polarisers in the same chip [3]. Further-
more, we supplement previous work by reporting some
characteristics of a configuration that greatly suppresses back-
ground emission.
acousto - optic tuned filter
\ isolator
PM fibre)
opticalamplifier J
/ Lens \
po larisa
I
Llaser output
Fig. 1 Cavity layout
Laser elements: As shown in Fig. 1, we have chosen a unidirec-
tional ring configuration with polarisation maintaining fibres con-
necting the AOTF and the gain chip/beamsplitter module, which
contains an isolator, a polariser, and gradient index lenses which
provide collimation for the 50% beamsplitter and mode matching
between the gain chip and the fibres.
Filter: The AOTF is a single section fdter, using a titanium dif-
fused singlemode waveguide in X-cut Y-propagating lithium nio-
bate. The reader is referred to [3] for basic device parameters and
fabrication details.
The propagation, absorption and coupling losses for this 55 mm
long chip amount to 3.5dB (fibre to fibre). To span the optical
tuning range, the AOTF is driven by an R F sweeper from -168 to
No. 25 2175