Mode-locking of an InGaAs VCSEL in an external cavity

Author

Dowd, P. ; White, I.H. ; Tan, M.R.T. ; Houng, Y.M. ; Wang, S.Y.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Phys., Bath Univ., UK

Volume

2

fYear

1995

fDate

30 Oct-2 Nov 1995

Firstpage

139

Abstract

Mode-locking of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) has already been achieved by electrically pumping a VCSEL in an external cavity at the cavity frequency. This cavity was formed using a butt-coupled fibre and 24 ps pulses were generated at a repetition rate of 821 MHz. It has also been suggested that self-pulsations could be produced by the introduction of a saturable absorber in the VCSEL structure. Here we report the generation of 36 ps pulses at a repetition rate of 2.46 GHz by mode-locking a VCSEL placed in an external cavity and for the first time to our knowledge we report on the measurement of a transform-limited time-bandwidth product. If the mirror forming the external cavity is replaced by a second VCSEL a small self-oscillation has been observed when the lasers are DC biassed. Furthermore, pseudo-random pulses have been generated by modulation of the gain or loss of the coupled VCSEL system

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; high-speed optical techniques; indium compounds; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser mode locking; optical fibre couplers; optical modulation; optical saturable absorption; quantum well lasers; surface emitting lasers; 1.46 GHz; 36 ps; DC biassed; InGaAs; VCSEL; butt-coupled fibre; cavity frequency; coupled VCSEL system; electrical pumping; external cavity; gain; loss; mirror; mode-locking; pseudo-random pulses; repetition rate; saturable absorber; self-oscillation; self-pulsations; transform-limited time-bandwidth product; vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Fiber lasers; Indium gallium arsenide; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Optical pulse generation; Pulse measurements; Pulse modulation; Pump lasers; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Annual Meeting, 1995. 8th Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings, Volume 1., IEEE

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2450-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LEOS.1995.484635

Filename

484635