High-Power and High-Efficiency 1.3- $\mu\hbox{m} $ Superluminescent Diode With Flat-Top and Ultrawide Emission Bandwidth

We report on a flat-top and ultrawide emission bandwidth of 125 nm from InGaAsP/InP multiple quantum-well (MQW) superluminescent diode with antireflection coated and tilted ridge-waveguide device configuration. A total output power in excess of 70 mW with an average power spectral density of 0.56 mW/nm and spectral ripple ≤ 1.2 ± 0.5 dB is measured from the device. Wall-plug efficiency and output power as high as 14% and 80 mW, respectively, is demonstrated from this batch of devices. We attribute the broad emission to the inherent inhomogeneity of the electron-heavy-hole (e-hh) and electron-light-hole (e-lh) recombination of the ground state and the first excited state of the MQWs and their simultaneous emission.