ET5705701

Principles and Applications of

Semiconductor Lasers

Final Report 2

BY :

鐘阡語

黃筑暄
K RY Z C H E L A N N E D E L A C R U Z
 I. Background
II. Device structures
III. Design/operation principles
Contents IV. Simulation or experimental results
V. Conclusion
VI. References
VII. Project Review

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I. Background
Distributed Feedback (DFB) Diode Lasers are fixed wavelength single mode diode lasers. The optical
gain is provided by double heterostructure which include several Quantum Wells for electronic
confinement. The single mode emission is enforced by a Bragg grating with the laser chip. The surfaces
of the laser chip act as cavity mirrors due to the difference of the refractive index of the laser material and
the surrounding air. The rear facet of the laser chip is provided with a high reflection coating. The front
facet of the laser chip is provided with a high-quality antireflection coating for avoiding the Fabry
Perot modes of the laser chip.

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I. Background
The biggest feature of Distributed Feedback (DFB) Diode Lasers is that it has very good
monochromaticity. Its line width can generally be within 1MHz, and it has a very high side mode
suppression ratio (SMSR), which can currently be as high as 40-50dB above.[2]

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Last week’s notes:
TOPIC : DFB laser that operates at 1.55 μm, and the laser length is 250 μm with AR/HR coating.

1. Waveguide loss parameter: 0 typical value = 20

2. AR reflectivity 0.2 0.01

3. HR reflectivity 0.999 0.95

4. Configure Facet Phase and observe performance

5. Check SMSR value from optical spectrum to verify single mode operation

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II. Device Structure
Layers Region Material

Region 1 Bulk Semiconductor Region N-type

Region 2 Index Grating Region Grating

Region 3 Bulk Semiconductor Region Cladding

Region 4 Quantum Well Region Quantum Well

Region 5 Bulk Semiconductor Region Cladding

Region 6 Bulk Semiconductor Region P-type

Region 7 & 8 Electrode N & P contact

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 Material Specifications
Material Composition Component structure DFB Laser structure
Top contact Electrode Width 250
Height 0.1
P-type material Ga(0)In(1)As(0)P(1) : InP Width 250 Acceptors = 5e+17
Height 1
Cladding (P) Ga (0.29)In(0.71)As(0.61)P(0.39) Width 250 Acceptors = 5e+17

Height 0.15
Active Layer: Ga (0.24)In(0.76)As(0.79)P(0.21) Width 250

Quantum Well /Ga (0.29)In(0.71)As(0.61)P(0.39) Height 0.1

QW thickness 0.008
Cladding (N) Ga (0.29)In(0.71)As(0.61)P(0.39) Width 250 Donor = 5e+17
Height 0.06
Grating Ga (0.29)In(0.71)As(0.61)P(0.39) Width 250 Facet Phase
/Ga(0)In(1)As(0)P(1) Height 0.18 =250deg

Profile Sin Period = 0.244

N-type material Ga(0)In(1)As(0)P(1) : InP Width 250 Donor = 5e+17

Height 1
Bottom contact Electrode Width 250
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Height 0.1
Laser Length
In Symbol Table Editor:
We added an additional symbol to set the
laser length.

Name: CL
Expression: 250

All element width of the materials are set to

CL.

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 Coating Facet Reflectivity
Ideal Used
HR Left 99.99% 0.95
AR Right 0% 0.01

In creating new file, Global parameters settings will be prompted. In Structure options, DFB laser is selected.

Based on existing DFB laser designs, front facet is typically AR coated and rear facet is HR Coated. The typical
reflectivity of HR coating is about 99.99%, and AR coating is 0.

To configure the coating, left and right reflectivity is changed.

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 Facet Phase
Configuration process:
observe mode profile
performance from 0o to
360o phase range.
Optimum performance
was seen at 250o facet
phase.

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III. Design/operation principles
A DFB laser is typically defined as one where the internal grating is actively pumped (is located in a region
which provides optical gain) and is uniformly distributed between both output facets in an edge emitter.
For high-power applications, the most common configuration is to use a uniform grating without phase
shifts and to apply a high-reflectivity dielectric coating (> 90%) to the rear facet so that the DFB grating in
effect forms the low-reflectivity out-coupler. The front facet is typically coated with dielectric layers to <
0.1%, to suppress FP modes.[3]

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IV. Simulations Results

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Wavelength
To set the operational wavelength of
the laser. The simulation parameters
were configured.

In options, wavelength is set to 1.55

um.

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 Bias Table
We set 4 different bias value from 0
V to 1.1 V range. The purpose of
this is to observe the lasing
behavior below and above threshold
voltage of the constructed laser.

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 Wavelength
vs. Gain
At different carrier density levels
shown through blue (2e+12), green
(2.5e+12), and red(3e+13) line
graph, the maximum/peak gain was
at a wavelength equal to 1.5596 um.

There is a proportional increase in

gain with increase in carrier density.

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 0 o facet phase 250 o facet phase

Optical
Mode
The simulation illustrates the
intensity of light emission which can
be observed to be densest at the
center and least dense by the edges.

The reflected beam is properly

confined inside the cavity and a more
Parameter 0 o facet phase 250 o facet Phase
coherent beam is observed in 250o
facet phase. Left Facet Power 0.565976%
Right Facet Power 99.434%
Confinement Factor 1.12543%
Kappa*L (Grating) 10.0168

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 Near & Far 1V

Field
Intensity
Far field intensity shows a
proportional angle of diffusion with
regards to the near field intensity. 1.1 V
It can be observed that emission
intensity decreased with increasing
distance. Near field intensity is
greater by a factor of about 15.

Both field has a good performance

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L-I-V Curve
Optical power as a function of
current: As current injection is
increased, the optical power
increases linearly.

When the voltage is 1.0V, the

current is 21.6173mA, the output
power is 13.5651mW.

When the voltage is 1.1V, the

current is 55.3592mA, the output
power is 36.1828mW. Ith=1.71mA

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 Con’t:
L-I-V Curve

Current as a function of voltage:

Below the threshold voltage,
current is negligibly small; above
the threshold, current increases
almost linearly until saturation.

𝑑𝑃 (36.1105−13.5379)
Slope efficiency = = = 0.6697
𝑑𝐼 (55.295−21.5876)

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Spontaneous
Emission
In the graph it can be seen that
the simulated design has a very
narrow bandwidth.

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 Optical 1V 1.1 V

Spectrum
The spectra feature two simultaneous
lasing peaks, but it can be observed
that only one mode is above threshold.
The amplitude of the second peak is
comparatively smaller than the peak
with wavelength closer to the value of Mode Wavelength (um) Mode Spacing
bragg wavelength.
Main mode 1.55829 n = 3.20755 λm2
L = 250 um Δλ ≈
2nL
Side mode 1.54768 Λm = 1.55829 Δλ ≈ 1.5141x10−3 𝑢𝑚

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 Bragg at grating region

Wavelength 3.3071

Bragg wavelength (λB) was calculated

by getting the average of refractive
index at grating region based on the 3.108
simulation. λB resulted in 0.006994 um
difference from the main mode and
0.017604 um from the side mode.

3.3071 + 3.108
𝑛ത = 2
=3.20755
λB = 2 𝑛ത Λ
= 2(3.20755)(0.244)
= 1.5652844
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 SMSR
2.4561e10
Peak 1: 2.4561e10 mW = 103.90246045 dBm
Peak 2: 15.996 mW = 12.040113955 dBm
SMSR = 103.90246045- 12.040113955
= 91.86 dB 15.996

High SMSR value = most of the

power exists in the main mode.

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V. Conclusion
Our design successfully described the experimental implementation of a DFB laser that
operates at 1.55 μm wavelength of 250 μm laser length with AR/HR coating. In summary, the
following are our observations for the simulated laser design:

1. In changing the carrier density, we have observed a proportional increase in gain.

2. In the L-I-V curve, we have seen a linear behavior of current and power output. While
current-voltage graph showed that current only started to behave linearly after reaching
the threshold voltage.

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V. Conclusion
3. From the optical spectrum, we have observed that only one mode is above threshold, but
the presence of 2 modes can be seen. Once the first mode started lasing, the gain was
clamped, which in turn prevented any further mode to reach the lasing threshold.

4. The 250o facet phase showed that best performance in terms of optical output and SMSR.

5. The designed laser has high side mode suppression ratio = 91.6 dBm. We can infer from
this that the laser generates most power in the main mode.

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VI. References
[1] Park, S.W. & Moon, C.K. & Han, J.C. & Song, Jungll. (2004). 1.55-um DFB Lasers Utilizing an
Automatically Buried Absorptive InAsP Layer Having a High Single-Mode Yield. Photonics
Technology Letters, IEEE. 16. 1426 - 1428. 10.1109/LPT.2004.826777.
[2] https://kknews.cc/zh-tw/science/a2ovj4j.html
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/physics-and-astronomy/distributed-feedback-lasers
[4] M. Razeghi, M. Defour, R. Blondeau, F. Omnes, P. Maurel, O. Acher, F. Briliouet, J. C. C-Fan and J.
Salerno,“First cw operation of a Ga0.25In0.75As0.5P0.5-InP laser on a silicon substrate,” Appl. Phys.
Lett. 53 2389–2390(1988).
[5] Hidenori Yonezawa, Takeo Maruyama, Tadashi Okumura, Nobuhiko Nishiyama, &amp; Shigehisa
Arai. (2008). Injection type GAINASP/INP DFB lasers directly bonded on SOI substrate. 2008
International Nano-Optoelectronics Workshop. https://doi.org/10.1109/inow.2008.4634566

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VII. Project Review
Software Features:
In using LaserMOD, we were able to differentiate the simulation results between
theoretical and experimental parameters in constructing a DFB laser design. Through
this software, we have acquired information on laser behavior by configuring parameters
that can optimize the performance depending on our desired output. The following are
the LaserMOD features that has helped us to simulate a single mode DFB laser that
operates at 1.55 um with 250 um length and with AR/HR coating:

1. To verify the single mode operation, the Optical Spectrum in this software enabled
us to see the number of modes and the corresponding wavelength that reached
threshold value. Additionally, we were able to compute the SMSR from the same
spectrum.

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VII. Project Review
3. From the Mode profile, it showed us the lasing beam behavior, which enabled us to
see whether leakage is present and whether the confinement was optimized while
changing the facet phase, AR/HR reflectivity, and waveguide loss.
4. L-I-V curve enabled us to see the lasing behavior before and after reaching
threshold value and until saturation. Numerical threshold data can also be acquired
from the curve.
5. Spontaneous Emission
6. Near and Far Field Intensity

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VII. Review of Final Project
Software Limitations:
There are many parameters to consider, but the data cannot be adjusted blindly, and
whether the changed values are reasonable, and cannot be changed in order to meet the
values required by the problem. For example, when the number of layers of QW is
above 30 layers, the result of this simulation is unreasonable. It should be noted that if
the current turning line is not obvious when looking at the L-I-V curve, the laser is not
lasing.

Parameters used in setting an effective laser should be carefully considered in creating a

design. The software cannot be used to prove effectivity of design without real
experimental result. The simulation is merely a guide for experimentation without the
physical limitation and problem of financial cost. The laser structure should also follow
the rules of laser design from existing theoretical data.

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Thank you for listening.

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