Abstract

Wavelength change due to temperature fluctuations in semiconductor lightwave devices is a problem for building high-density wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) fiber optic network systems. The wavelength of the laser diodes and the central wavelength of the semiconductor wavelength filter has a typical temperature dependence of 1 Å/°C or higher. Thus, a temperature insensitive lightwave device is required. However, the study of temperature insensitive lightwave devices has been very limited; the only existing one we know of was in the silica-based material field. In that study, a polymer of which the refractive index varies negatively with respect to temprature (i.e. dn/dT < 0) was used to construct a silica-based temperature insensitive waveguide[1]. On the other hand, in the semiconductor field, such negative dn/dT characteristics are rare. Moreover, it has been said that it is impossible to build temperature insensitive lightwave devices using the InGaAsP/InP system. However, semiconductor temperature insensitive lightwave devices are attractive and suitable for the monolithic integration of active and passive devices. To overcome the above mentioned problems, we propose a novel temperature insensitive optical filter (TIOF) with InGaAsP/InP system.

© 1996 Optical Society of America