NL Nanosemiconductor (Germany) has announced a breakthrough achievement in the realization of a laser chip which will enable cost-effective WDM solutions for optical communications using Silicon Photonic technology including Silicon-based arrayed waveguides (AWGs) and light modulators. A single mode CW laser with spectral width of >20 nm and spectral wavelength between 1200 and 1320nm is currently being put into production at NL Nanosemiconductor’s facilities in Dortmund (Germany). According to NL Nanosemiconductor the uniqueness of the laser is the width (25 nm) and uniform shape (less than 3dB modulation at 0.5 nm resolution) of the spectrum in the lasing regime. Of further importance is the high reproducibility of the lasing spectrum shapen they added. The company managed to develop a way to get a laser to lase with a very wide emission spectrum, which is opposite to the fundamental nature of lasing at a very narrow spectrum. Emerging applications for light sources with a broad spectrum include Optical Coherence Tomography imaging systems, which typically use so-called Superluminescence LEDs (SLED) or Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) sources.
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