Experimental demonstration of a low-cost tunable semiconductor DFB laser for access networks

Abstract

A low-cost tunable semiconductor distributed feedback (DFB) laser design in access networks is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It covers 9 nm continuous tuning range by changing the temperature. The side mode suppression ratios are above 42 dB over the tuning range. The current and temperature coefficients of wavelength tuning are 0.0124 nm mA−1 and 0.0875 nm °C, respectively. The results indicate that the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp (REC) technique is promising to fabricate low-cost tunable DFB lasers meeting the requirement of wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical networks (WDM-PONs). It should be also noted that the tuning range can be easily extended by using more sections.