Specifying the wavelength and temperature tuning range of a Fabry-Perot laser containing refractive index perturbations (Invited Paper)

The wavelength spectra of ridge waveguide Fabry Perot lasers can be modified by perturbing the effective refractive index of the guided mode along very small sections of the laser cavity. One way of locally perturbing the effective index of the lasing mode is by etching features into the ridge waveguide such that each feature has a small overlap with the transverse field profile of the unperturbed mode, consequently most of the light in the laser cavity is unaffected by these perturbations. A proportion of the propagating light is however reflected at the boundaries between the perturbed and the unperturbed sections. Suitable positioning of these interfaces allows the mirror loss spectrum of a Fabry Perot laser to be manipulated. In order to achieve single longitudinal mode emission, the mirror loss of a specified mode must be reduced below that of the other cavity modes. Here we briefly review one procedure for calculating the mirror loss spectra of devices containing such features. We then go on to describe a method for synthesising onedimensional slot patterns. This technique allows the lasers emission wavelength to be specified to a high degree of accuracy.