Wavelength tunable laser using silica double ring resonators

Abstract

AbstractA wavelength tunable laser having a wide tuning range is a key device in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication systems and has been studied by many research institutes. Recently, compared to WDM with the objective of expanding the transmission capacity, methods such as Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing (ROADM), Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS), and wavelength routing with the objective of improving network flexibility have been studied extensively. Wavelength tunable lasers are widely recognized as fulfilling the important role of lowering the costs and advancing the functions of these systems. Today, wavelength tunable lasers having various methodologies and configurations have been proposed, but each has its advantages and disadvantages. We studied a configuration using a silica double ring optical resonator and a semiconductor amplifier as a simpler methodology with a simple configuration and lower costs. Using this configuration, we achieved 45‐nm wavelength tunable operation capable of covering the C‐band or the L‐band in WDM optical communications with sufficient margin by combining an external planar lightwave circuit (PLC) resonator and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in several milli‐squares. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 89(3): 34–41, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www. interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.20212