Phase correlation between longitudinal modes in semiconductor self-pulsating DBR lasers

Author

Renaudier, J. ; Duan, G.H. ; Provost, J.G. ; Debregeas-Sillard, H. ; Gallion, P.

Author_Institution

Alcatel Thales III-V Lab., Marcoussis, France

Volume

17

Issue

4

fYear

2005

fDate

4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

741

Lastpage

743

Abstract

Phase correlation leading to self-pulsation (SP) in semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Under proper biasing conditions, the laser oscillates with three main modes and we observe that each two-modes beating provides SP with identical spectral linewidth. Under the same operating conditions, the measured spectral linewidths of the beating modes are much larger than the linewidth of the self-pulsating signal. These results demonstrate the natural occurrence of passive mode-locking (PML) and phase correlation in semiconductor DBR lasers. A model based on multimode coupled-wave rate equations, including four-wave mixing (FWM), is developed to describe PML and SP in the gain region of the laser cavity. This model demonstrates that the existence of phase correlation between longitudinal modes is due to FWM.

Keywords

distributed Bragg reflector lasers; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; laser modes; multiwave mixing; optical correlation; optical pulse generation; semiconductor device models; semiconductor lasers; spectral line breadth; synchronisation; DBR lasers; beating modes; biasing conditions; coupled-wave rate equations; four-wave mixing; laser cavity; laser mode beating; laser model; laser oscillation; longitudinal modes; multimode equations; passive mode-locking; phase correlation; phase synchronization; self-pulsating lasers; self-pulsating signal; self-pulsation; semiconductor lasers; spectral linewidth; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Distributed feedback devices; Equations; Laser feedback; Laser mode locking; Laser modes; Laser theory; Lead compounds; Optical coupling; Semiconductor lasers; Distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers; four-wave mixing (FWM); mode-locked lasers; phase synchronization; self-pulsating lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2005.843977

Filename

1411861