A semiconductor optical device includes a substrate formed of silicon and having a first optical waveguide and a semiconductor element formed of a III-V compound semiconductor and having a second optical waveguide, the semiconductor element being bonded to an upper surface of the substrate. The first optical waveguide and the second optical waveguide form a directional coupler.

A method for producing a semiconductor optical device includes the steps of bonding a semiconductor chip to an SOI substrate having a waveguide, the semiconductor chip having an optical gain and including a first cladding layer, a core layer, and a second cladding layer that contain III-V group compound semiconductors and are sequentially stacked in this order, forming a covered portion with a first insulating layer on the second cladding layer, etching partway in the thickness direction the second cladding layer exposed from the first insulating film, forming a second insulating film covering from the covered portion to a part of a remaining portion of the second cladding layer, and forming a first tapered portion that is disposed on the waveguide and tapered along the extending direction of the waveguide by etching the core layer and the second cladding layer exposed from the second insulating film.

A semiconductor laser device includes: a main body including a first layer having n-type conductivity, a second layer having p-type conductivity, and an active layer interposed between the first layer and the second layer, the first layer, the second layer, and the active layer being laminated in a lamination direction; a front-side mirror formed on a front facet of the main body, the front facet being parallel to the lamination direction; and a rear-side mirror formed on a rear facet of the main body, the rear facet facing the front facet in an optical waveguide direction that crosses the lamination direction and the front facet. The first layer includes an electric field control layer having a shorter composition wavelength than an emission wavelength of the active layer. The second layer includes an optical guide layer having a shorter composition wavelength than the emission wavelength of the active layer.

A distributed feedback laser (DFB) is a type of laser diode in which the active region of the device contains a periodically structured element or diffraction grating, which may include periodic changes in refractive index that cause reflection back into the laser cavity. Conventional DFB lasers used in optical networks may exploit either loss-modulated or index-modulated gratings. In the case of complex-coupling, index-modulated and loss-modulated gratings may be combined together.

A laser includes a substrate, first and second claddings, a gain medium, and multiple supports. The first cladding is spaced apart from the substrate by an air gap. A thickness of the first cladding in a vertical direction is in a range from 0.05-0.15 micrometers. The gain medium is disposed on the first cladding opposite the air gap. The second cladding is disposed on the gain medium opposite the first cladding. A thickness of the second cladding in the vertical direction is in a range from 0.05-0.15 micrometers. The supports are coupled to each of the substrate, the first cladding, the gain medium, and the second cladding to retain the first cladding, the gain medium, and the second cladding spaced apart from the substrate.

A method for producing a semiconductor optical device includes the steps of bonding a semiconductor chip to an SOI substrate having a waveguide, the semiconductor chip having an optical gain and including a first cladding layer, a core layer, and a second cladding layer that contain III-V group compound semiconductors and are sequentially stacked in this order, forming a covered portion with a first insulating layer on the second cladding layer, etching partway in the thickness direction the second cladding layer exposed from the first insulating film, forming a second insulating film covering from the covered portion to a part of a remaining portion of the second cladding layer, and forming a first tapered portion that is disposed on the waveguide and tapered along the extending direction of the waveguide by etching the core layer and the second cladding layer exposed from the second insulating film.

A laser device based on silicon photonics with an in-cavity power monitor includes a gain chip mounted on a silicon photonics substrate and configured to emit light in an active region bounded between a frontend facet with low reflectivity and a backend facet with anti-reflective characteristics. The laser device further includes a wavelength tuner formed with waveguides in the silicon photonics substrate optically coupled to the backend facet to receive light from the gain chip and configured to have a reflector with high reflectivity to reflect the light in an extended cavity formed with the frontend facet through which a laser with a tuned wavelength and amplified power is outputted. Additionally, the laser device includes a photodiode formed in the silicon photonics substrate and coupled to the waveguides in the extended cavity right in front of the reflector to measure power of light thereof.

A semiconductor laser element that includes a semiconductor layer including a waveguide formed in an intra-layer direction of the semiconductor layer and a window region formed in a front-side end face of the waveguide, has a current-laser optical output characteristic in which, at an operating temperature of 25° C.±3° C., a laser optical output has a maximum value at a first driving current value and the laser optical output is at most 20% of the maximum value at a second driving current value greater than the first driving current value, and is not damaged at the second driving current value.

A method for tuning an emission wavelength of a laser device, including: acquiring a drive condition of a wavelength tunable laser diode to make the wavelength tunable laser diode oscillate at a wavelength from a memory; driving a first thermo-cooler and a first heater based on the drive condition of the wavelength tunable laser diode; determining whether respective control values of the first thermo-cooler and the first heater are reached within a first range of target values; and driving a gain region after the control values have been reached within the first range.

A buried semiconductor optical device comprises a semiconductor substrate; a mesa-stripe portion including a multi-quantum well layer on the semiconductor substrate; a buried layer consisting of a first portion and a second portion, the first portion covering one side of the mesa-stripe portion, the second portion covering the other side of the mesa-stripe portion, and the first portion and the second portion covering a surface of the semiconductor substrate; and an electrode configured to cause an electric current to flow through the mesa-stripe portion, the buried layer comprising, from the surface, a first, second, and third sublayer, the first and third sublayer each consisting of semi-insulating InP, the first sublayer and the second sublayer forming a pair structure, the second sublayer being located above the multi-quantum well layer, and the second sublayer consisting of one or more layers selected from InGaAs, InAlAs, InGaAlAs, InGaAsP, and InAlAsP.