Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are that subset of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) that focus primarily on the integration of interconnected guided-wave optical devices. A good example of a simple but potentially important PIC is the butt-coupled integration of a distributed feedback (DFB) laser with an electroabsorption modulator to provide a low-chirp high-speed modulated source.¹ Many researchers have also pointed out that three-section continuously tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers are also PICs, with an integrated multielement resonator composed of a separately controlled gain medium, phase shifter, and tunable Bragg mirror.^2-4

© 1990 Optical Society of America