High-speed fibre optic links using 780 nm compact disc lasers

High-speed fibre optic data links with transmission speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s and distances of up to 2 km for 50 and 62.5 mu m core multimode fibres were demonstrated using low cost compact disc (CD) lasers and Si detectors operating at 780 nm. To the best of the authors´ knowledge, this is the highest data rate yet demonstrated for CD lasers operating at a wavelength of 780 nm. This suggests that a low cost CD laser with multimode fibre and its simple receptacle package design may be more usable for the short-range nature of gigabit fibre optic link applications than has previously been considered to be practical.