The semiconductor laser has a resonance cavity composed of a gain chip, a
Mach-Zehnder wide tuning port, and a wavelength-selective mirror component
formed either as a ring resonator or a reflective Fabry-Perot etalon.
Optical signals generated by the gain chip propagate through the wide
tuning port and into the wavelength-selective mirror component and are
then reflected back to the gain chip. The wavelength-selective mirror
component is configured to reflect only those optical signals having
wavelengths within a set of sharp peaks so that the laser cavity resonates
only within the sharp peaks. The wavelength-selective mirror component is
heated to adjust internal dimensions to maintain one of the sharp peaks at
a selected emission wavelength. As optical signals pass through the wide
tuning port, the signals are split between two channels of differing
lengths resulting in optical interference. The optical interference limits
the ability of the laser cavity to resonate at wavelengths other than near
the center of a single broad peak determined by the relative lengths of
the two channels. The wide tuning port is heated to vary the relative
lengths of the two channels to maintain the single broad peak at the
selected transmission wavelength. In this manner, the laser cavity is
controlled to resonate substantially only at the single selected
wavelength. Resonance at any of the other wavelengths reflected by the
wavelength-selective mirror component is greatly limited, thereby
significantly reducing transmission sidebands generated by the laser.
Specific implementations of the ring resonator mirror and the reflective
etalon are described.