Widely Tunable Bottom-Emitting

Abstract—We present bottom-emitting tunable vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs) with an effective wavelength tuning range of 20 nm. These devices utilize a high reflectivity micromechanically tunable Bragg mirror as the back reflector. Compared with our first generation tunable VCSOAs, the bottom-emitting devices exhibit a two-fold increase in the ef-fective tuning range as well as a five-fold reduction in the required tuning voltage. Index Terms—Fabry–Pérot resonators, laser amplifiers, micro-electromechanical (MEMS) devices, semiconductor optical ampli-fiers, surface-emitting lasers, tunable amplifiers, wafer bonding. I