Contents 1. Introduction
Electroabsorption modulator (EAM)-integrated distributed feedback lasers (EA-DFBs) are key components of metro-area and client-side optical communication systems1–5). In such middle-distance applications, optical transmitters are being required to transmit data at a higher rate with lower power consumption. An effective way of reducing transmitter power consumption is to reduce the modulation voltage (Vm) of an EA-DFB because the larger Vm an EAM driver supplies, the more power it consumes. However, there is a trade-off between Vm and the extinction ratio (ER) of an EAM and systems operating above middle distance require optical transmitters with a relatively high ER.
