We demonstrate a compact, high power tunable laser based on free-space hybrid integration of indium phosphide gain chips with thermally tuned low loss silicon etalons. By optimization of filter fabrication and laser cavity design we achieve 17.6 dBm output power. Integrated thermal control elements enable accurate and wide tuning without the typical external optical feedback or wavelength locking components.

Future optical communication systems will exploit increasingly wide optical wavelength bands to continue scaling capacity per installed fiber. Currently, optical components such as tunable lasers and modulators are designed to operate in a single wavelength band only and multiple designs are therefore needed for a single system. Improved tunable lasers operating seamlessly over these wider bands would both simplify system deployment and management. Increasing the laser tuning range requires improved wavelength selection mechanisms to simplify calibration and improve performance. We report a tunable laser with an 11THz tuning range and 14 mW output power. This laser is based on what we believe to be a novel silicon optical bench platform augmented with thermal membranes to enable both low tuning power consumption and low crosstalk laser tuning. Reduction of crosstalk simplifies both calibration and control of the laser frequency. The total power consumption of the tunable laser is only 700 mW. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

The relentless traffic growth of passive optical networks (PONs) requires high-performance optical transceivers capable of operating over legacy installed fiber links designed for much lower data rates. New methods of increasing launched optical power and received optical sensitivity are required while reducing the cost of these transceivers. We present a compact silicon optical bench 10Gb/s XGS-PON platform demonstrating E1 class performance over 29dB link loss. The integration approach is suited to high volume automated assembly for low cost.

We present a compact 15-mode multi-plane light conversion device with a linear fiber array input, Hermite-Gaussian modes output, 8 phase masks and 8π phase wraps to enable 200 nm operation bandwidth with significantly reduced wavelength dependence compared to traditional 2π designs.

We report on a novel 10Gb/s low-cost multi-electrode DML employed as a very wavelength stable burst-mode source for upstream TWDM-PONs. 10X wavelength drift reduction is achieved compared to conventional DMLs enabling transmission on 100GHz grid.

Fast and simple optical filtering is a prerequisite for low-cost passive optical networking using multiple wavelengths to scale to higher capacity. We demonstrate a simple electro-magnetically tuned optical filter capable of tuning across more than 700 GHz of optical spectrum in under 1 ms with low optical loss. We show successful transmission of 10.3-Gb/s modulated signals through the filter with no additional impairments. The device is straightforward to fabricate and assemble and, therefore, offers potentially low cost.

Investigation of NG-PON2 upgrade to 25 Gb/s line-rate on a 100 GHz grid using a burst-mode transmitter based on a multi-electrode DFB. Compliance with NG-PON2 MSE requirements is shown.