A narrow beam 1.3-μm-super luminescent diode integrated with a spot-size converter and a new type rear absorbing region

Abstract

The device structure and performance of 1.3-/spl mu/m narrow beam superluminescent diodes (NB-SLD's), which consist of a spot-size converter and a new type rear absorbing region, are reported. A butt-jointed selectively grown spot-size converter (SSC) is employed to realize the narrow beam characteristics. The rear absorbing region is designed as a taper structure with a part of the region is inclined from the active-stripe axes. In order to investigate the effects of both SSC length and active-region length on device performance, two types of NB-SLDs, whose SSC and active-region lengths differ, are fabricated. An electrode to sweep out photoexcited carriers in the absorption region is formed on one device. By comparing the characteristics of these devices, we clarify that a 500-/spl mu/m-active-region device is suitable for high-output power operation, and a 400-/spl mu/m-active-region device is suitable for realizing short coherent length. The light-output power is 13.9 mW at 200-mA-injection current for the former device, and the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the spectrum is 62.6 nm (calculated coherence length is 26.5 /spl mu/m) for the latter device. Very small spectral modulation index (0.015 at 5 mW-output power) is attained by grounding the absorption-region electrode. For the SSC length, a 300-/spl mu/m SSC device shows very narrow far-field patterns (FFPs) and very good fiber-coupling characteristics. The FWHM of horizontal and vertical FFPs are 8.9 and 10.6/spl deg/, respectively. Because of this narrow beam divergence, the coupling efficiency of -1.9 dB to a flat-end 4-/spl mu/m spot-size fiber is obtained without lenses. The alignment tolerance of this device to the fiber for both horizontal and vertical direction is more than 3 /spl mu/m at a loss of when -1 dB from the optimum coupling.