Rapid and broad wavelength sweeping of standard telecommunication distributed feedback laser diode

This Letter presents a method for the fast and broad wavelength sweeping of a standard setup of a diode's active region and its immediate vicinity, which contain the diode's optical feedback system. The selective and rapid heating of the active region is possible due to the confinement of the voltage drop to the active diode's region that has submicrometer thickness. Using the presented method and an off-the-shelf telecommunication distributed feedback laser diode, we demonstrate wavelength sweeps in excess of 10 nm that were completed in about 200 ns, while generating average optical power in excess of 50 mW. In spite of high-amplitude current-drive pulses, 6000 h continuous operation of the diode within such an operational regime did not show any significant degradation of the diode's performance.