Contents I. Introduction
Electroabsorption modulator (EAM)-integrated distributed feedback lasers (EA-DFB lasers) are key components of metro-area and client-side optical communication systems [1] –[5]. In such middle-distance applications, optical transmitters are needed to transmit data at a higher rate with a lower power consumption. An effective way of reducing transmitter power consumption is to reduce the modulation voltage () of an EA-DFB laser because the larger an EAM driver supplies, the more power it consumes. Furthermore, a reduced becomes increasingly important when EA-DFB lasers are used in optical transmitters for multi-level modulation formats [6]– [9] in which electrical circuits tend to be complex and power hungry.
