Widely tunable coupled-ring reflector laser diode

A coupled-ring reflector (CRR), which is composed of two coupled rings both of which are coupled with a straight waveguide, is applied to a widely tunable laser diode. When the radii of two rings are slightly different, the peak reflection wavelength of the CRR can be widely tuned over a few tens nanometers by a small amount of refractive index change. It is shown that a few tens nanometers of tuning with a sidemode suppression ratio exceeding 45 dB both for adjacent cavity mode and for adjacent ring mode is achievable in the widely tunable CRR laser diode.