Tunable monolithic mode-locked lasers on InP with low timing jitter

Abstract

Pulse trains with only 2 ps in width and low root-mean-square timing jitter of 220 fs are demonstrated from fine tunable monolithic 40-GHz laser integrated circuits on GaInAsP-InP. The repetition rate is tunable within 500 MHz by changing only the gain current and the absorber voltage. Simultaneously, the small pulsewidths are kept constant and the timing jitter remains below 300 fs. The determined time-bandwidth products between 0.37 and 0.5 are close to the transform limit and the fiber coupled optical power is >or=1 mW. The fact that pulsewidth and timing jitter remain small over the whole repetition-rate tuning range constitutes an important step toward economic commercial applications, especially if frequency shifts caused by fabrication tolerances have to be compensated

Low-Jitter and High-Power 40-GHz All-Active Mode-Locked Lasers

“…On the other hand, if the gain section is made very short, the required gain coefficient will be large and the gain is saturated due to bandfilling of the QWs such that the differential gain is lowered. For monolithic lasers, the length of the laser is fixed by the required repetition rate, implying that regrowth or other processing technology must be used to make a short gain section [1], [2]. We have chosen to increase the gain saturation energy by simply using fewer QWs.…”

“…ONOLITHIC semiconductor mode-locked lasers (MLLs) are attractive candidates for generating short optical pulses at high repetition rate due to their good performance, small size, inherent robustness, and the possibility of integration with other semiconductor elements [1], [2]. Applications include optical time-division-multiplexed communication systems and optical signal processing.…”

Experimental investigation of the impact of optical injection on vital parameters of a gain-switched pulse source

“…Picosecond pulse generation can be accomplished with many different techniques such as external modulation of a continuous-wave light signal [8], gain switching [9], and mode-locking [10]- [12]. In comparison to gain switching, active mode-locking requires expensive and complex techniques but is superior concerning the amplitude, timing jitter and the minimum width of the obtainable pulses.…”

Optical flip-flop based on two-coupled mode-locked ring lasers

“…We would like to remark that the concept that we present can be implemented in many technologies. Compact mode-locked lasers that output short optical pulses at repetition rates up to 40 GHz have been presented by others, i.e., [6] and [7]. The cavity length of these devices could be made smaller than 1 mm.…”