74-NM WAVELENGTH TUNING RANGE OF AN INGAASP/INP VERTICAL GRATING-ASSISTED CODIRECTIONAL COUPLER LASER WITH REAR SAMPLED GRATING REFLECTOR

A new vertical grating assisted codirectional coupler laser with rear sampled grating reflector (GCSR laser) combines single-mode operation over a very wide tuning range of 74 nm with a side-mode suppression of better than 30 dB over most of the wavelength span. The total tuning span is limited by the combined bandwidths of the active material gain curve and the envelope of the sampled grating reflection peak spectrum, while the tuning capacity of the directional coupler filter alone is estimated to be at least 140 nm.