Widely Tunable Quantum-Well Laser: OPO Diode Around 2 μm Based on a Coupled Waveguide Heterostructure

We present the design of a widely tunable monolithic source on GaAs/AlGaAs. It consists of a quantum-well distributed feedback (DFB) laser vertically coupled with a waveguide engineered for nonlinear frequency conversion. No regrowth or alignment is necessary, and all the structure stems from a single epitaxy step. Light is emitted by the 0.98 μm DFB laser and transmitted to the underlying waveguide by an adiabatic taper, where it can undergo parametric down-conversion, providing signal and idler beams around 2 μm. Transfer rates and tolerances for transfer and conversion efficiency are calculated to be compatible with the tolerances of current fabrication processes. We estimate that an OPO threshold can be reached in the underlying waveguide for a laser emitted power of 20–100 mW, if high-reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) are used.