A laterally-coupled distributed feedback laser with equivalent quarter-wave phase shift

We report the first laterally-coupled distributed feedback (LC-DFB) laser with a quarter-wave equivalent phase shift (EPS) realized by interference lithography (IL) and conventional photolithography. A specially designed sampled grating is fabricated on both sidewalls of a ridge waveguide to provide a quarter-wave EPS at the center of the cavity. The resulting laser exhibits stable single-mode lasing operation over a wide range of injection currents, with a side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 41.1 dB. This provides a practical, low-cost method to fabricate quarter-wave phase shifted DFB lasers with high performance without any epitaxial regrowth or the use of electron-beam lithography, thereby simplifying the fabrication of DFB lasers with stable and precise wavelengths, as single devices or as arrays in photonic integrated circuits.