High-speed modulation of semiconductor integrated etalon interference lasers

Recently, there is a great deal of interest in achieving longitudinal mode stabilization of semiconductor lasers by introducing interferometric resonators [1-4]. Such lasers are capable of stable single longitudinal mode operation over an extended temperature range which would be ideal for high bit rate, long distance optical communications. In Ref. 1 we have reported stable single longitudinal mode operation over a temperature range of ΔT=23°C in a GaAs-GaAlAs interferometric semiconductor laser, the integrated etalon interference (IEI) laser. The IEI laser consists of a resonator having one curved segment (L2) joined at both ends to two straight segments (L1 and L3) as shown in Fig. 1. Lateral guiding is provided by a buried heterostructure (BH) type laser cavity. Interference is caused by the internal reflection and lateral mode conversion at the junction discontinuity between straight and curved waveguides.