Improvement of the wavelength switching behavior of semiconductor tunable lasers through optical feedback from a periodic reference filter based on a novel prism-based implementation of a Fox-Smith resonator

Author

Moeyersoon, Bart ; Morthier, Geert ; Bockstaele, Ronny ; Baets, Roel

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Technol., Ghent Univ., Gent, Belgium

Volume

17

Issue

10

fYear

2005

Firstpage

2032

Lastpage

2034

Abstract

We show that the wavelength switching behavior of semiconductor tunable lasers can be improved through optical feedback from a stable reference filter. The filter is based on a novel prism-based implementation of a Fox-Smith resonator and has a response consisting of periodically spaced peaks, both in reflection and transmission. The improvement of the wavelength switching behavior stems from the suppression of the thermally induced wavelength drift associated with the switching of the tuning currents.

Keywords

laser cavity resonators; laser feedback; laser tuning; optical filters; optical prisms; optical switches; semiconductor lasers; Fox-Smith resonator; optical feedback; optical reflection; optical transmission; periodic reference filter; prism-based implementation; semiconductor lasers; stable reference filter; thermally induced wavelength drift; tunable lasers; tuning current switching; wavelength switching behavior; Laser feedback; Laser stability; Laser tuning; Optical feedback; Optical filters; Optical reflection; Optical resonators; Resonator filters; Semiconductor lasers; Tunable circuits and devices; Optical communication; optical switching; tunable lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2005.856384

Filename

1512263