All-optical clock recovery from 2.5 Gbit/s NRZ data using selfpulsating 1.58 mu m laser diode

For the first time, all-optical clock extraction from 2.5 Gbit/s NRZ data is demonstrated using a two contact InGaAsP semiconductor selfpulsating laser diode (SP-LD) for what the authors believe to be the first time. The saturable absorber region of the device was doped with Zn ions to reduce the carrier lifetime such that strong selfpulsations at frequencies up to 4 GHz were obtained. Injection of a 10 mu W optical data signal at a wavelength approximately 15 nm lower than the lasing wavelength was sufficient to synchronise the selfpulsations to the incoming NRZ data stream. Similar effects were seen for RZ formated data. Such all-optical clock extraction techniques will find application in future multigigabit per second optical networks and for OEIC applications.