Broad tunable photonic microwave generation based on period-one dynamics of optical injection vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Abstract

Photonic microwave generation based on period-one dynamics of an optically injected VCSEL has been study experimentally. The results have shown that the frequency of the generated microwave signal can be broadly tunable through the adjustment of the injection power and the frequency detuning. Strong optical injection power and higher frequency detuning are favorable for obtaining a high frequency microwave signal. These results are similar to those found in systems based on distributed feedback lasers and quantum dot lasers. The variation of the microwave power at the fundamental frequency and the second-harmonic distortion have also been characterized.

Polarization Effects on Photonic Microwave Generation in VCSELs Under Optical Injection

“…Such research interests have also extended to a cost-efficient type of laser: vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) [9][10][11]. Besides the low production cost, VCSELs also offer desirable characteristics, for instance, low threshold current, circular output-beam profile, single-longitudinal mode operation, wafer-scale integrability and longevity.…”

“…Besides the low production cost, VCSELs also offer desirable characteristics, for instance, low threshold current, circular output-beam profile, single-longitudinal mode operation, wafer-scale integrability and longevity. A widely continuously tunable photonic microwave generation based on P1 in an optical injection VCSEL has been demonstrated recently [11]. In [11], two local maximum microwave powers at the two detuning frequencies at a fixed injection power for the higher injection power region have been observed, which has not been shown in DFB lasers and QD lasers.…”

“…A widely continuously tunable photonic microwave generation based on P1 in an optical injection VCSEL has been demonstrated recently [11]. In [11], two local maximum microwave powers at the two detuning frequencies at a fixed injection power for the higher injection power region have been observed, which has not been shown in DFB lasers and QD lasers. To our knowledge, this phenomenon has not been explained yet.…”

“…The main laser parameters are the field decay rate, 33 ns -1 , the linewidth enhancement factor, 2.8, the decay rate of the population inversion, 2.08 ns -1 , and the linear dichroism a=-0.21 ns -1 . These parameters have been extracted in [13][14] for a VCSEL that is similar to that used in the experiments of [11]. These VCSELs are commercial devices (Raycan) emitting at 1550-nm wavelength.…”

“…We consider also in our simulations the specific characteristics of the laser in [11] with respect to the laser in [12]: for large bias currents the VCSEL in [11] emits in a linear polarization (x) with a frequency that is 5.1 GHz higher than that of the orthogonal polarization (y), so we take in our model the linear birefringence parameter p = -16 ns -1 corresponding to this situation. As in [11] we consider parallel optical injection in which the direction of the linearly polarized optical injection coincides with that of the linear polarization (x) in which the free-running VCSEL emits. In our calculations we fix the bias current to a value similar to that of [11], that is 6.5 times threshold, and the amplitude of the field of the injected light, Einj=1.…”