Wavelength shift enhancement in quantum-well intermixed distributed-feedback lasers

The maximum possible shift in emission wavelength of a quantum-well (QW) intermixed distributed-feedback (DFB) laser as a function of degree of intermixing is studied. In a recent experiment, the wavelength shift of a QW intermixed DFB laser is around 13% of the bandgap blue shift. Our study indicates that if a smaller grating period is used, the wavelength shift can be increased by four times to 50% of the bandgap blue shift, because it is not necessary to change the carrier density significantly in order to maintain a modal gain above lasing threshold. The maximum tuning range is found to be 20 nm, indicating that QW intermixing can be used to fabricate multiwavelength DFB laser arrays for wavelength-division-multiplexing communication systems.