Investigation on a microring laser coupled with phase-section bus waveguide as a tunable transmitter for application in future optical/wireless hybrid networks

▶ We investigate semiconductor microring lasers, in order to be applied for radio over fiber applications. ▶ A broadband MB-OFDM scheme is evaluated in terms of typical telecommunication figures of merit. ▶ We numerically provide a physical insight on the effect of phase-shifted optical feedback through bus waveguide residual reflectivity. ▶ The proposed scheme enables tunable operation and reduction of nonlinear distortion. In this paper, semiconductor microring lasers with integrated phase sections in the bus waveguide are numerically evaluated, using a dynamic multimode laser model, and investigated as low-cost, integrated, potential tunable directly modulated transmitters for future hybrid optical–wireless networks. The effect of optical feedback through bus waveguide is revealed as a promising mechanism for improving nonlinear distortion. Additionally, tunability is achieved with the aid of phase-tuning. The underlying laser dynamics beyond this behavior are analyzed.