Design and characterization of widely tunable semiconductor lasers based on etched slots

Abstract

Tunable semiconductor lasers play an important role in numerous technologies for optical communication and sensing systems. They are widely used in dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) systems and in other important markets such as trace gas detection for environmental emission motoring. Tunable lasers are also becoming a key component in optical packet and burst switching systems to reduce the latency and increase the capacity of current optical transmission networks.