56 Gbps externally modulated widely tunable lasers with SOA boosters heterogeneously integrated on silicon

Abstract

We demonstrate externally modulated widely tunable lasers co-integrated with semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) heterogeneously integrated on silicon. The widely tunable laser enables continuous single-mode operation over a tuning range of approximately 40 nm, with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of at least 50 dB and an average waveguide-coupled optical power of 5 mW. The integrated electro-absorption modulator (EAM) exhibits an extinction ratio (ER) of 16 dB when reversed biased at -2 V. The bit-error-rate (BER) measurements conducted across the available optical bandwidth (15 nm) showcase error-free transmission at 32 Gbps using non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signals for the majority of wavelengths in a back-to-back (B2B) configuration. Additionally, transmission measurements over distances of up to 10 km through a standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) have been successfully demonstrated. Dynamic extinction ratio (DER) values exceeding 4.5 dB are achieved for all wavelengths. Open-eye diagrams were measured up to 56 Gbps. These results demonstrate that this compact mono-epitaxial externally modulated tunable laser with integrated optical amplification can be a cost-effective transmitter solution for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) metropolitan and access networks.