Stability in single longitudinal mode operation in GaInAsP/InP phase-adjusted DFB lasers

Abstract

A single longitudinal mode (SLM) operating condition for phase-adjusted (PA) DFB lasers has been made clear both experimentally and theoretically. As expected, we got a high SLM operation yield of 80 percent in a moderate coupled case up to a light output power of 10 mW. However, in the strongly coupled cases, the two-mode operation with the TE0 mode and the TE + 1 mode occurred frequently. To explain the two-mode operation and to optimize the PA-DFB laser structure, we have developed a theory. Taking the spatial hole burning along the laser axis into account, we succeeded in explaining the longitudinal mode behavior. From our theory, moderate coupling ( <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">kL = 1.25</tex> ) was found to be optimum to maintain the large threshold gain difference above threshold.