Performance improvements in high-frequency modulation of a laser diode under enhanced optical feedback

Author

Chan, N.H. ; Shu, C. ; Lee, K.L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Shatin, China

Volume

14

Issue

12

fYear

2002

Firstpage

1650

Lastpage

1652

Abstract

Improvement in the high-frequency modulation characteristics of a Fabry-Perot laser diode has been observed when the device is driven in an external cavity that provides an amplified optical feedback. At a driving frequency of 10 GHz, the weak sinusoidal waveform in the original output is turned into a train of narrow pulses with a width of 23 ps. Under an optimized feedback level, an improvement of 15.4 dB in the electrical modulation efficiency and 21.2 dB in the sidemode suppression ratio are observed. The output pulses also exhibit a reduced chirp with a minimized total root-mean square noise.

Keywords

laser cavity resonators; laser feedback; laser noise; optical modulation; phase noise; semiconductor lasers; 10 GHz; Fabry-Perot laser diode; SSB noise spectra; amplified optical feedback; driving frequency; electrical modulation efficiency; enhanced optical feedback; external cavity driven laser; high-frequency modulation; minimized total root-mean square noise; narrow pulse train; optimized feedback level; reduced chirp; sidemode suppression ratio; weak sinusoidal waveform; Diode lasers; Distributed feedback devices; Erbium-doped fiber amplifier; Laser feedback; Laser modes; Laser noise; Optical feedback; Optical noise; Optical pulses; Pulse width modulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2002.804645

Filename

1058240