Tunable long-wavelength vertical-cavity lasers: the engine of nextgeneration optical networks?

摘要

The incredible growth of the Internet and data transmission arenpushing the bandwidth requirements for fiber networks and expansion ofnmetro and local area networks at an unprecedented pace. One of the keynrequirements for a great expansion of optical networks is low cost,nhigh-performance tunable lasers that are easily packaged and coupled tonfiber. The paper reviews the terrain of both materials and devicentechnologies that are currently driving this optical revolution andnspeculates on the future directions and if a single, all encompassingntechnology, the “Holy Grail,” might be realized by any ofnthe contenders