Proposal and Analysis of Distributed Reflector-Laser Diode Integrated with an Electroabsorption Modulator

Abstract

A novel integrated laser, that is, a distributed reflector laser diode integrated with an electroabsorption modulator, is proposed to improve the output efficiency, single-mode stability, and chirp. The proposed laser can be realized using the selective metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy technique (that is, control of the width of the insulating mask), and its fabrication process is almost the same as the conventional electroabsorption modulated laser (EML) process except for the asymmetric coupling coefficient structure along the cavity. For our analysis, an accurate time-domain transfer-matrix-based laser model is developed. Based on this model, we perform steady-state and large-signal analyses. The performances of the proposed laser, such as the output power, extinction ratio, and chirp, are compared with those of the EML. Under 10-Gbps NRZ modulation, we can obtain a 30% higher output power and about 50% lower chirp than the conventional EML. In particular, the simulation results show that the chirp provided by the proposed laser can appear to have a longer wavelength side at the leading edge of the pulse and a shorter wavelength side at the falling edge.