Influence of leakage currents between electrodes in tunable DBR-lasers

Wavelength tunable multi-section DBR lasers have been fabricated on a p-doped InP substrate by LPE. Maximum output power is 10.5 mW and largest step-wise tuning range is 5.1 nm for a single-sided DBR laser. A double-sided laser has a continuous tuning range of 1.4 nm. It is shown that the low electrical isolation between the top contacts causes lower output power and a significantly larger laser linewidth.