Abstract

We report on a novel semiconductor laser source that is based on the integration of semiconductor amplifiers with a waveguide grating router (WGR). Such a laser is very attractive for wavelength division, multiplexed (WDM) communication systems since it is capable of producing a comb of precisely spaced optical frequencies. As we shall show below, this laser exhibits much better performance than Bellcore’s MAGIC laser⁽¹⁾. This is mainly due to the much lower insertion loss of the WGR as compared to the reflective mirror grating employed for the MAGIC laser. In addition, since the router is used in a transmissive configuration, our laser has the potential for multi-frequency operation for all the multiplexer channels.

© 1994 Optical Society of America