Electrically-pumped directly-modulated tunable VCSEL for metro DWDM applications

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) offer advantages of being very cost effective and mass manufacturable. By integrating a VCSEL with a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) cantilever, a tunable VCSEL with wide and continuous wavelength tuning can be obtained. Previous demonstrations of this concept were achieved in the short-wavelength (900-980 nm) regime. In this paper, we report the first electrically pumped tunable VCSELs with continuous tuning in 1530-1620 nm wavelength regime. The VCSELs are directly modulated at 2.5 Gbps (OC-48) rates and show error-free transmissions. Wavelength locking to ITU-grids are accomplished in /spl sim/200 /spl mu/s.