Detailed Theoretical Investigation on Enhanced Nondegenerate Four-Wave Mixing in Passive Mode-Locked Semiconductor Lasers

The passive mode-locked semiconductor laser (PMLL) can realize terahertz (THz) four-wave mixing (FWM) with high conversion efficiency and no need for pump input. Theoretical investigation on its FWM characteristics has been carried out by using the traveling wave and carrier rate equations combined with nonlinear dynamics of carrier density pulsation (CDP), carrier heating (CH), and spectral-hole burning (SHB). The stable mode-locked conjugate pulse with short-duration high-repetition frequency can be obtained by the PMLL. The pedestal-free conjugate pulse has narrower width and larger amplitude jitter compared with the pump wave. Smaller absorption recovery time is helpful to extend the stable conjugate output regime. There exists a down-limit for absorption recovery time to avoid self-pulsation (SP) instability. The larger injection current is required for smaller absorption recovery time to reach the given conversion efficiency. The larger conversion efficiency and narrower conjugate pulse can be obtained by proper design of distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) coupling strength. The DBR bandwidth must be designed to be within signal-pump detuning to avoid resonance-induced conjugate pulse distortion. The FWM in PMLL has considerable potential such as demultiplexing in optical time-division multiplexing systems.