Analysis of modulation characteristics of semiconductor laser with lateral field coupling control

Abstract

The internal loss modulation of a semiconductor laser has a very rapid response because it depends on the photon lifetime in an optical cavity. This technique is applicable to high‐frequency modulation and generation of short light impulses which could not be possible by means of ordinary current modulation. the present paper describes some results of small‐signal and large‐signal sinusoidal modulation which are obtained by applying a rate equation to a lateral field coupling control (LFCC) semiconductor laser. It is found that modulation at frequencies higher than 10 GHz is possible and that light impulses with 10‐ps half width can be obtained at several GHz. These results are applicable to other lasers with internal loss modulation.