We report our experimental results on a two-section DFB laser with a wide tuning range of over 10nm. The device
consists of two individually injected gain-coupled DFB sections with a uniform grating pitch. The total device length is
only 350um, with 150um for one section and 200um for the other. The threshold current is about 24mA total for the two
electrodes. The lasing mode lies on the longer wavelength side of the stop band. In the tuning process, we adjust only
one injected current monotonically until the other DFB mode at the shorter wavelength side of the stop band is about to
be excited. Then we alter to the other electrode and repeat the process. We found that the shorter wavelength DFB mode
can be suppressed efficiently through this method and a mode-hop-free tuning range as large as 11 nm can be obtained.
The side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) in optimal conditions is maintained above 45 dB when the wavelength is tuned
from 1541nm to 1550nm, while the output power variation is less than 3 dB. To our knowledge, this is the largest tuning
range achieved for a two-section DFB laser with a simple uniform grating tuned only by injection current. The device is
suitable for applications in DWDM systems as well as laser spectroscopy and lidar sensing.
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