Monolithically integrated thermoelectric controlled laser diode

The fabrication and performance characteristics of a monolithically integrated thermoelectric controlled laser diode are described. The thermoelectric element is the n‐InP substrate. The lasers (λ∼1.51 μm InGaAsP) have threshold currents of ∼20 mA and operate kink free to >10 mW/facet. A variation of active region temperature of ± 2.5 °C has been achieved using 50 mA of thermoelectric controller current. The observed frequency tuning rate associated with this temperature shift is ∼0.5 GHz/mA. The device is useful for applications that require a high degree of frequency stability or small frequency tuning. Some potential lightwave system applications are in single‐frequency transmission systems, coherent transmission systems, optical amplifiers, resonant external cavity modulators, and injection locking.