Silicon micro-ring tunable laser for coherent optical communication.

A compact external cavity tunable laser based on a silicon hybrid micro-ring resonator is demonstrated. A theoretical model is also employed for design and analysis of the wavelength tuning performance of the device. In this model, the gain section of the device is simulated by a conventional multimode rate equation model, whereas all rest passive sections are modeled by the frequency domain method. Experimental results have shown that the output power of this device can reach 29 mW, with a linewidth less than 150 kHz. The tuning range is more than 17 nm in C-band with 60 dB side-mode-suppression-ratio (SMSR). This device shows a comparable performance with the commercial narrow linewidth laser as the source in coherent transmission systems.