A broadband tunable laser design based on the distributed Moiré-grating reflector

Abstract

In this work, a broadband tunable laser based on the distributed Moiré-grating reflector (DMR) is designed and analyzed. Compared to the conventional sampled-grating tunable lasers, whose bandwidth is limited by the Fourier transform of the sampling function, the tuning range of DMR laser can be made much broader and may only be limited by the material gain bandwidth, as shown by analytical and numerical simulations. Moreover, the tuning curve of DMR can be made continuous and monotonic, with no need to exploit the Vernier effect. Using the elastic deformation induced by the ceramic perovskite material with large transverse piezoelectric coefficient d31, the possibility to electrically tune the lasing wavelength for more than 100 nm is also studied.