Uncooled and Polarization Independent Operation of Self-Seeded Fabry–Pérot Lasers for WDM-PONs

We present for the first time an experimental characterization of uncooled and polarization-insensitive operations of directly modulated self-seeded Fabry-Pérot laser diodes (FP-LDs) for wavelength division multiplexed passive optical networks (WDM-PONs). Polarization-insensitive operations are achieved through the combination of nonreciprocal optical elements placed both at the FP-LD and the WDM distribution node, which is placed within the PON. Compared to self-seeded reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers, the FP-LDs show narrower emission linewidth, resulting in improved resilience to chromatic dispersion. The 1.25-Gb/s WDM system operation is assessed on 32 channels in the C-band over a 100-GHz grid and in a wide range of ambient temperature (0°C-60°C). The results shown in this letter promote the self-seeded uncooled FP-LDs to a potential candidate for WDM-PON deployments.