Rapid High-Precision In Situ Wavelength Calibration for Tunable Lasers Using an Athermal AWG and a PD Array

Author

Yu, Runxiang ; Proietti, Roberto ; Kurumida, Junya ; Karalar, Aytug ; Guan, Binbin ; Yoo, S.J.B.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA

Volume

24

Issue

1

fYear

2012

Firstpage

70

Lastpage

72

Abstract

This letter presents a simple and rapid high-precision in situ calibration technique for tunable superstructure grating distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers using a laser driver board with an athermal arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) and a photodetector (PD) array. The experiment demonstrates laser calibration for seven wavelength channels completed in 23 s with a precision of ± 0.015 nm. This letter describes the details of the system calibration method, the mode competition detection technique, and the calibration time analyses. The presented technique can also apply to other tunable lasers with suitable modification in the laser driver interfaces.

Keywords

arrayed waveguide gratings; calibration; diffraction gratings; distributed Bragg reflector lasers; driver circuits; laser modes; laser tuning; optical communication equipment; photodetectors; telecommunication channels; PD array; athermal AWG; athermal arrayed waveguide grating; in situ wavelength calibration; laser driver; laser tuning; mode competition detection; photodetector; superstructure grating distributed Bragg reflector laser; time 23 s; Arrayed waveguide gratings; Calibration; Laser modes; Laser transitions; Monitoring; Waveguide lasers; Calibration; detectors; gratings; laser tuning;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2011.2172684

Filename

6054009