Monolithically integrated thermoelectric controlled laser diode

Abstract
The fabrication and performance characteristics of a monolithically integrated thermoelectric controlled laser diode are described. The thermoelectric element is the n-InP substrate. The lasers (λ∼1.51 μm InGaAsP) have threshold currents of ∼20 mA and operate kink free to >10 mW/facet. A variation of active region temperature of ± 2.5 °C has been achieved using 50 mA of thermoelectric controller current. The observed frequency tuning rate associated with this temperature shift is ∼0.5 GHz/mA. The device is useful for applications that require a high degree of frequency stability or small frequency tuning. Some potential lightwave system applications are in single-frequency transmission systems, coherent transmission systems, optical amplifiers, resonant external cavity modulators, and injection locking.