A tunable gain medium with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based Fabry-Perot (FP) filter cavity tuning is provided as a tunable laser. The system includes a laser cavity for wavelength selection and a filter cavity. The laser cavity is composed of a gain medium such as a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), two collimating lenses, and an end reflector. The MEMS-FP filter cavity includes a fixed reflector and a movable reflector that can be controlled by electrostatic force. By moving the MEMS reflector, the wavelength can be adjusted by changing the FP filter cavity length. The MEMS-FP filter cavity displacement can be adjusted discretely by the step voltage or continuously by the continuous drive voltage. The drive frequency for continuous adjustment may be the resonant frequency of the MEMS structure or any other frequency, and the wavelength tunable range may span different wavelength tunable ranges such as 30 nm, 40 nm, and more than 100 nm.
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