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New Widely Tunable Lasers for Optical Networks

Objetivo

Widely tunable laser diodes, with a tuning range of tens of nm, have been investigated and fabricated since several years now. Their tuning characteristics have recently also been the subject of increased attention in systems and network research and several applications relying on wavelength tunability have surfaced in the meantime. However, existing widely tunable laser diodes still exhibit a number of disadvantages. E.g. some types are either difficult to control or to stabilize, other types are not suitable for high power operation. The project will therefore investigate new concepts for widely tunable laser diodes, which don't exhibit the aforementioned disadvantages. To this end, a consortium consisting of an industrial tunable laser diode manufacturer, an SME specialized in tunable laser control systems and a university and a research centre has been formed.

Objectives:
The main objective of the project is to develop and experimentally investigate new types of widely tunable laser diodes which can be expected not to exhibit the disadvantages of existing types. A total of three new concepts for widely tunable laser diodes will be investigated in the project. All of these new concepts have been investigated already theoretically to some extent.

Specific objectives are:
To design, fabricate and characterise Sampled Grating Y-branch laser diodes.
To design, fabricate and characterise Sampled Grating Tunable Twin-Guide laser diodes.
To study the feasibility of Sampled Grating Ring Resonator laser diodes.
And to assess and compare the potential of these different devices.

Of key importance thereby are the tuning range, the maximum output power and the ease of control.

Work description:
Three new types of widely tunable laser diodes, i.e. laser diodes with a tuning range of several tens of nm, will be investigated. To this end, the project includes design, fabrication, characterisation and control related activities. The new widely tunable laser diode types are expected to be better than existing types in one or more of the following aspects: ease of fabrication, ease of control, maximum output power and tuning range. The Sampled Grating Y-Branch tunable laser diode is expected to have a similar performance as the existing GCSR laser, but it should be a lot easier to fabricate, while the filtering in this device is slightly more selective and may thus allow a more stable operation and an easier feedback control. The Sampled Grating Tunable Twin-Guide laser diode has the main advantage that it only requires two tuning currents, thus leading to significantly reduced characterisation times. In addition, this device combines two very selective filter mechanisms, thus guaranteeing a stable operation and easy feedback control, while its front facet may be AR-coated, which allows its integration with a semiconductor optical amplifier for output power boosting. In addition to the work on the design and fabrication of these lasers, a significant part of the project also aims at investigating the fast characterisation and the use of feedback control for these devices. In particular the Sampled Grating Y-Branch laser with its 4 tuning sections may require some intelligence to arrive at a fast characterisation. Apart from the two aforementioned laser structures, a feasibility study (including fabrication and design) will be made for a third laser structure, the Sampled Grating Ring Resonator laser diode. Such a structure will only be interesting if the ring can be made with sufficiently low losses.

Milestones:
At the end of the project it is expected that the new concepts of widely tunable laser diodes will have demonstrated superior performance compared to the existing widely tunable laser diodes on one or more of the key issues like maximum output power, ease of control and tuning range. There will be a clear view of how the different new as well as the existing concepts for widely tunable laser diodes compare to each other in many aspects, including also fabrication complexity.

Convocatoria de propuestas

Data not available

Régimen de financiación

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinador

INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO-ELECTRONICA CENTRUM VZW
Aportación de la UE
Sin datos
Dirección
KAPELDREEF 75
3001 LEUVEN
Bélgica

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Coste total
Sin datos

Participantes (3)