GaAsP tunable distributed Bragg reflector laser with indium tin oxide thin-film heater

Abstract

A GaAsP quantum well tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser with a thin-film heater above a DBR grating was designed and fabricated. As a result of the optimization of the DBR grating to obtain both high reflectivity and sharp wavelength selectivity, single-mode lasing with an output power of 54 mW and a side-mode suppression ratio of 43 dB was obtained. By forming the transparent thin-film heater at a distance of 0.1 µm above the DBR grating, the DBR grating was heated locally and efficiently, and a wide wavelength tuning range of 5.2 nm was achieved by heating with a heater power as low as 160 mW.