We have fabricated superluminescent light-emitting devices in the 840nm wavelength range with flat top spectral shape. The novel design allows more than 50nm bandwidth and up to 34mW of optical power at the chip facet. Moreover, the 3dB bandwidth changes by less than 2nm within a driving current range between 120mA and 200mA. This corresponds to a power level change between 17mW and 34mW, without considerable shape changes, which is one of the main concerns for many applications. The stability of the spectral bandwidth is also reflected by the central wavelength that changes by less than 1nm in the same range of currents. The device shows great stability of the optical far field with respect to the driving current, allowing stable coupling of the emitted beam in optical fibers. We have also measured the coherence function of this device using an interferometric spectrum analyzer. Results show good side-lobes suppression ratio of more than 10dB, which remains almost unchanged over the whole range of driving currents.

Date Published: 5 March 2008
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6847, Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine XII, 68472N (5 March 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.763480

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6847:
Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine XII
Joseph A. Izatt; James G. Fujimoto; Valery V. Tuchin, Editor(s)