Tunable distributed feedback laser with photonic crystal mirrors

We report the development of a tunable laser diode based on InP using photonic crystal mirrors. The laser consists of two longitudinally coupled ridge waveguide segments that are coupled through a photonic crystal mirror segment. A laterally defined binary superimposed grating provides a distributed feedback in each of the cavities. Quasi-continuous tuning is achieved in a 24.5 nm window with 56 channels as typically required by wavelength division multiplexing applications.