A widely tunable laser using silica-waveguide ring resonators

Hiroyuki Yamazaki; Morio Takahashi; Kouichi Suzuki; Yukari Deki; Takeshi Takeuchi; Sekizen Takaesu; Mika Horie; Kenji Sato; Koji Kudo

doi:10.1117/12.630146

24 October 2005 A widely tunable laser using silica-waveguide ring resonators

Hiroyuki Yamazaki, Morio Takahashi, Kouichi Suzuki, Yukari Deki, Takeshi Takeuchi, Sekizen Takaesu, Mika Horie, Kenji Sato, Koji Kudo

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6014, Active and Passive Optical Components for WDM Communications V; 601407 (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.630146
Event: Optics East 2005, 2005, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

A Wide wavelength tunable laser is needed for Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing (ROADM) networks, since it realizes flexible network, effectively employing wavelength resources, and inventory cost reduction. Several types currently exist, but they all are difficult to produce; that is, their mass producibility is not high and they have many components. In particular, monolithically integrated wavelength tunable lasers, such as DFB array, and SG(Sampled Grating)-DBR based structures, have been developed. While these lasers have good performance, they require complex InP growth steps and processing. The external cavity lasers also have good performance, but require precise manual assembly and have moving parts. We have proposed novel tunable laser consisting of silica waveguide ring resonator connected directly to semiconductor optical amplifier. This laser structure has several advantages, such as a simple laser structure suitable for mass-production and high reliability due to having a stable thermal optic phase shifter and no moving parts. This paper gives recent progress in waveguide ring resonator based tunable laser. Low loss and high performance silica waveguide ring resonator, which was suitable for tunable laser, was successfully fabricated using high index contrast SiON core. Double-ring resonators successfully attained 45-nm and 160-nm wavelength tuning operations, which was the largest wavelength tuning range in a tunable laser with no mechanical moving parts reported to date. Triple-ring resonator demonstrated stable full L-band tuning operations with 50-GHz wavelength spacing. We believe that silica waveguide ring resonator based tunable laser is very suitable for not only mass production, but also widely wavelength tuning and stable single mode operations.

Citation Download Citation

Hiroyuki Yamazaki, Morio Takahashi, Kouichi Suzuki, Yukari Deki, Takeshi Takeuchi, Sekizen Takaesu, Mika Horie, Kenji Sato, and Koji Kudo "A widely tunable laser using silica-waveguide ring resonators", Proc. SPIE 6014, Active and Passive Optical Components for WDM Communications V, 601407 (24 October 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.630146

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available