Very-low-threshold, highly efficient, and low-chirp 1.55-μm complex-coupled DFB lasers with a current-blocking grating

Low-threshold current DFB lasers have been fabricated based on a complex-coupled structure with a current blocking grating. A threshold current as low as 5 mA was obtained, which enabled high temperature operation up to 105/spl deg/C. Asymmetric facet coatings were applied to obtain a high efficiency of 0.3 W/A. The strained InGaAsP MQW active region and the antiphase coupling has resulted in a low modulation chirping. By direct modulation of the device at 2.488 Gb/s and using optical amplifiers, we have demonstrated digital transmission over a 235 km-long standard single-mode fiber with a power penalty of 1.55 dB.