Wide range thermal and athermal operation of slotted surface grating lasers

Abstract

Athermalisation is a procedure in which the wavelength of a semiconductor laser remains unchanged even as the temperature is altered. This is achieved by altering the currents that flow through the laser so as to maintain the wavelength and avoid mode hops. In this study, we demonstrate that lasers operating with a large red-shift with respect to the gain peak yield the best performance in terms of the highest temperature operation and also in terms of the widest athermal operating range. In particular, a device with red detuning of approximately 25 nm yields the best results. This device is athermalised continuously (without mode hops) from 5 to 106 oC, and discontinuously to 115 oC while maintaining wavelength stability of ±0.4 GHz/0.003 nm and side mode suppression ratio of above 40 dB in most of the continuous range and above 30 dB in the discontinuous regime. Operating in this manner will enable semiconductor lasers to be used without a thermoelectric cooler in applications where the temperature changes substantially.