Title :
Precompensation Techniques to Suppress the Thermally Induced Wavelength Drift in Tunable DBR Lasers
Author :
Darvish, Ghafar ; Moravvej-Farshi, Mohammad Kazem ; Zarifkar, Abbas ; Saghafi, Kamyar
Author_Institution :
Iran Telecommun. Res. Center, Tehran
Abstract :
Wavelength drift caused by thermal transients is a major problem in optical routers which use semiconductor tunable lasers for packet switching. Wavelength drift is induced by the temperature variations in laser sections caused by switching of the tuning currents. A thermal model is used to analyze the optical frequency drifts due to the thermal characteristics of the laser chip and its mount. We investigate the impact of thermal effects on switching behavior of a three-section distributed Bragg reflector laser and show numerically that the wavelength drift can be counteracted by using precompensation of passive section currents. Results from numerical simulation show that the wavelength drifts can be suppressed by more than 80%.
Keywords :
distributed Bragg reflector lasers; laser tuning; numerical analysis; semiconductor lasers; laser chip; numerical simulation; optical frequency drifts; optical routers; packet switching; passive section currents; precompensation techniques; semiconductor tunable lasers; temperature variations; thermal characteristics; thermal effects; thermal model; thermal transients; thermally induced wavelength drift; three-section distributed Bragg reflector laser; tunable DBR lasers; tuning currents; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Frequency; Laser modes; Laser tuning; Optical packet switching; Optical tuning; Packet switching; Semiconductor lasers; Temperature; Tunable circuits and devices; Distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers; precompensation technique; thermal effects; tunable semiconductor laser; wavelength drift; wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM);
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JQE.2008.2001303
