Directly modulated sampled grating DBR lasers for long-haul WDM communication systems

The limitations on high-speed data transmission, using widely tunable sampled-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SGDBR) lasers, are investigated. We demonstrate 1.244-Gb/s data transmission over a wavelength range of 45 nm using a single directly modulated tunable SGDBR laser diode. Data transmission was evaluated on four separate wavelength channels each spaced 15 nm apart. Less than 0.6 dB of dispersion penalty was measured on all four channels for transmission over 50 km of standard single-mode optical fiber.