Short-cavity lasers with deeply etched DBR mirrors for Photonic Integrated Circuits

Deeply etched DBR mirrors are a new building block for complex Photonic Integrated Circuits. They greatly increase the design flexibility, since they can provide broadband reflection anywhere on the chip. In this paper we demonstrate the successful integration of DBR mirrors in short-cavity lasers. Devices with cavity lengths as small as 100 µm show stable CW operation at low drive currents. Devices with cavity lengths of 100 – 240 µm were used to characterize the DBR reflectivity. It is shown that the reflectivity is at least 30 % for a 2-period DBR mirror over a wavelength range of 1520 – 1580 nm