Abstract

A major characteristic of semiconductor-laser phased arrays is their spectral mode structure. It is inherently related to the degree of phase coherence among the elements of the array, which, in turn, affects the far-field pattern. Spectra of both gain-guided and index-guided phased arrays were found to exhibit generally multilongitudinal-mode operation.^1,2 In all these devices, however, the individual array elements were electrically connected in parallel. Here we describe the spectral features of separate-contact laser arrays³ in which each laser is biased independently.

© 1984 Optical Society of America