Critical design parameters for engineering broadly tunable asymmetric multiple-quantum-well lasers

Asymmetric multiple-quantum-well (AMQW) lasers are MQW lasers with QW's of varying thickness and/or composition in a single active region. AMQW lasers can, if designed properly, exhibit broad spectral tuning ranges more than twice as large as those of conventional MQW lasers. In the paper, it is shown experimentally and theoretically that AMQW lasers only exhibit broad wavelength tuning ranges near a specific cavity length defined as the transition cavity length. The transition cavity length is a critical design parameter for engineering broadly tunable AMQW Lasers.