High-Speed Directly Modulated Widely Tunable Hybrid Square/Rhombus-Rectangular Coupled Cavity Lasers

We report the latest development in high-speed directly modulated tunable laser based on simple and compact hybrid square/rhombus-rectangular laser (HSRRL), aiming for low-cost deployment in next generation high-throughput optical interconnects, intra-/inter-data center networks, and optical fiber communication system. The HSRRL is composed of a deformed square whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavity and a Fabry–Pérot (FP) cavity, and the WGM microcavity is used as an end face of the FP cavity with mode selection. A deformable WGM microcavity is designed to obtain a high reflectivity. The HSRRL, fabricated with deep-etching processing steps similar to FP laser without grating or epitaxial regrowth, has achieved 7-mA threshold current, 0.4-mW/mA slope efficiency, above 52-dB side mode suppression ratio (SMSR), and 16.2-GHz modulation bandwidth with injection currents of 34.3 mA and 60 mA for WGM microcavity and FP cavity, respectively. A wavelength tuning from 1537.40 nm to 1570.42 nm is realized by adjusting the injection currents simultaneously. In the tuning range, the laser has an SMSR greater than 40 dB, a linewidth less than 4 MHz, and a 3-dB modulation bandwidth greater than 14 GHz.