Widely tunable 850-nm metal-filled asymmetric cladding distributed Bragg reflector lasers

Broadly tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers utilizing metal-filled surface-etched diffraction gratings were fabricated on a GaAs-unstrained quantum well with AlGaAs core and cladding layers. Devices with 200- and 400-mum gratings sections were fabricated. Single-mode devices are fabricated over a broad spectral range, exhibiting over 55 mW of single-facet output power. The optical properties of this structure are analyzed in terms of effective index step between the peak and valley of the grating and scattering loss in the DBR. Discrete devices were fabricated with lasing wavelengths between 846.6 and 862.9 nm at intervals of 1.44nm, representing a range of 16.3 nm. Wavelength tuning by current injection into the DBR section is explored, and a broad tuning range of over 18 nm is measured while single-mode performance is maintained. The spectral linewidth of these devices is measured. The temperature dependence of light versus current, threshold current values, and spectral characteristics are also examined