title: Single-electrode-tuned mode-hop-free tunable laser based on ring coupled cavity.
abstract: A novel tunable laser which can achieve mode-hop-free single-electrode tuning based on a ring coupled cavity is proposed. The device comprises of a passive ring resonator coupled to two optical waveguides, two far ends of which are terminated by partially reflecting mirrors to constitute a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity. The waveguide in the ring resonator is divided into a tuning segment and a bias segment. The FP cavity contains an active gain waveguide and passive waveguide segments. A tuning electrode covers the tuning segment inside the ring resonator and the passive waveguide segments in the FP cavity. Mode-hop-free operation with a single-electrode tuning is achieved by properly designing the tuning electrode lengths within the FP cavity and within the ring resonator. Numerical analysis shows that a large mode-hop-free tuning range (>6 nm) with a very high single-mode selectivity can be achieved with an injection current less than 100 mA.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrated Optoelectronics, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007368:Interferometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D054023:Lasers, Semiconductor; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014159:Transducers