Broadband tunable external cavity laser using a bent-waveguide quantum-dot superluminescent diode as gain device

Abstract

A broadband tunable grating-coupled external cavity laser is realized by employing a self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum-dot (QD) superluminescent diode (SLD) as the gain device. The SLD device is processed with a bent-waveguide structure and facet antireflection (AR) coating. Tuning bandwidths of 106 nm and 117 nm are achieved under 3-A and 3.5-A injection currents, respectively. The large tuning range originates essentially from the broad gain spectrum of self-assembled QDs. The bent waveguide structure combined with the facet AR coating plays a role in suppressing the inner-cavity lasing under a large injection current.