title: Far-field, linewidth and thermal characteristics of a high-speed 1550-nm MEMS tunable VCSEL.
abstract: We report an electrically pumped 1550 nm MEMS tunable VCSEL with a continuous tuning of 101 nm at 22 °C. The top MEMS-DBR with built-in stress gradient within the dielectric layers is deposited in a low-temperature PECVD chamber on an InP-based half-VCSEL, structured by surface-micromachining and electrothermally actuated for continuous wavelength tuning. With 2.6 mA threshold current, the laser shows maximum CW output power of 3.2 mW at 1560 nm. The MEMS-VCSEL operates in single-mode with SMSR > 39 dB across the entire tuning range. At 36 °C, the tuning range reaches up to 107 nm. The divergence angle of the MEMS-VCSEL is approximately 5.6° for all tuning wavelengths. The intrinsic linewidth of an unpackaged device is 21 MHz. Quasi-error-free operation at 12.5 Gbps using a directly modulated MEMS-VCSEL is reported for a record 60 nm tuning, showing the potential of the so-called colorless source in WDM applications.
authors.forename: Sujoy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Mohammad Tanvir
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Haidar
authors.forename: Julijan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cesar
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malekizandi
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kögel
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neumeyr
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortsiefer
authors.forename: Franko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Küppers