Silica External Cavity Array Transmitters with High Wavelength Accuracy

Abstract

Directly-modulated semiconductor diode lasers are ideal sources for digital data communications, but sources for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) have additional stringent requirements on wavelength. The most obvious of these requirements is wavelength accuracy upon manufacture. Maintaining the wavelength stability over life may be even harder to ensure. Also, the dynamic properties of the laser frequency, both in terms of high-speed chirp and low-speed thermal drift, need to be guaranteed. © 1996 Optical Society of America