Numerical study of three phase shifts and dual corrugation pitch modulated (CPM) DFB semiconductor lasers based on reconstruction equivalent chirp technology

A distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser with three phase shifts based on reconstruction equivalent chirp (REC) tech-nology is proposed and investigated numerically. With the combination of multiple phase shifts and corrugation pitch modulated (CPM) structure, we also propose a novel and more complex structure named dual CPM, which has a flatter light power distribution along the laser cavity compared with the true double phase shifts DFB laser diode (LD), while the P-I curves are nearly the same. The proposed dual CPM structure is also designed and analyzed based on REC technology. The simulation results show that, the DFB semiconductor laser with complex structure such as phase shifts, or even arbitrary variation of the grating period can be achieved equivalently and easily by changing the sampling structure. But its external characteristics are almost the same as those DFB lasers with true phase shifts, or true arbitrary variation of the grating period. The key advantage of the REC technology is that it varies only the sampling structure and keeps the seed grating (actual grating in sampling structure) period constant. So its fabrication needs only low-cost and standard holographic exposure technology. Therefore we believe this method can achieve the high-end and low-cost DFB LD for mass production.