A model for the analysis the dynamical behaviour of a twin stripe laser oscillator is developed. It consists of a laser with two active stripes with slightly different effective indices of refraction accounting for different active indices, and for the existence of two modes (symmetric and antisymmetric). The analysis is based on two laterally coupled one-dimensional transmission lines. Oscillating optical signals at the laser output are observed, if both stripes are independently biased with direct currents, without any modulation. The
main characteristics of these oscillations, as well as their dependence on several parameters of the devices, are shown. The main features of the oscillations are, that the frequency is above the relaxation oscillation frequency, and that the phase noise of the oscillations is much lower than in the beat signal of two solitary
lasers. Finally, the modulation depth of the signal is optimized, and the linewidth is evaluated.
A rigorous and numerically efficient method for 2D and 3D analysis of general periodic structures is described and applied to a number of passive and active optical devices.
For the generation of optical mm-waves many schemes have been investigated19 because of its increasing technical interest for the wireless local ioop. Simple beating of two different laser lines yields high flexibility, the excessive phase noise, however, is a drawback. Nearly all methods for pulse generation are based on RF injection into single or two mode DFB lasers or Fabry Perot lasers. The tunability ofthese mm-sources is rather limited. The RF power in some cases exceeds 25 dBm, so that the generation of the optical mm-waves becomes quite costly. Our method relies on two dc-biased DFB lasers. The output of one of them (master laser) is injected via an isolator into a second DFB laser (slave laser): Under these conditions output power oscillations ofthe slave laser can be created of nearly arbitrary repetition frequency up to the THz range with high modulation index, high output power and very low phase noise. The additional continuous tunability makes this method attractive for a very flexible and low cost optical mm-wave generation.
Injection of cw-light from a single-mode laser into the cavity of a second one with a frequency detuning outside the locking range leads to output power oscillations of the injected laser. The oscillation frequency and the extinction ratio can be controlled by the amount of injected power and the frequency detuning between the two noninteracting lasers. Thus a continuous tunability of the oscillation frequency is possible for frequencies ranging from < 10 GHz to > 100 GHz. A further advantage of such injection tracked oscillations is the low phase noise. Additionally the oscillations can be synchronized with external frequencies or a system clock by sideband injection locking.
The generation of short optical pulses with a repetition rate up to 45 GHz has been realized by using a new method based on cw-light injection from one DFB into another cw operated DFB-laser with a proper frequency detuning. Extremely high extinction ratios of the pulsations could be controlled by two parameters: detuning and injection ratio. An optimized construction of the DBF-laser with respect to single-mode output power has been utilized. Two laser structures with ternary compressively strained In70Ga30As/In53Al23Ga24As/InP and quaternary strain compensated In71Al9Ga20As/In34Al21Ga45As/InP multiquantum wells (MQW), respectively, provided very high speed in combination with high (greater than 20 mW) output power, low threshold current (less than 8 mA) and low temperature sensitivity (To equals 90 K). Comparison of characteristics showed the advantages of lasers with strain compensated MQWs.
A 1530nm multimode diode laser with an external resonator containing a grating achieved a single-mode tuning range of 100nm. Etalon effects and modehops during the frequency tuning of the laser were minimized by special design features. Absorptions of water vapor were recorded intracavity and extracavity. The intracavity experiments were impeded by modehops induced by the absorption itself. This effect could be reduced by increasing the selectivity of the resonator. Modeling of the optical properties of the resonator allows the quantitative specification of the optical parameters for a singlemode intracavity tunable diode laser (TDL) operation. This enables a resonator design to be realized which achieves an optimum stability and selectivity for a singlemode TDL for both extracavity applications.
Carrier transport and carrier capture were reported to markedly influence the carrier and photon dynamics in quantum-well semiconductor lasers and to limit the modulation bandwidth. Recently, model calculations of various degrees of complexity have isolated special aspects of the problem. We given an extended overview and report on our theoretical and experimental results on 1.55 micrometer AlGaInAs/InP lasers with strongly asymmetric transversal waveguide structures. The self-consistent solution of the Poisson and continuity equations is based on measured carrier mobilities and not only limited to the confinement region. The confinement factor is pointed out to be important when comparing different asymmetric structures. The use of optimized asymmetric structures is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally to enable a distinct improvement in modulation bandwidth and to counteract the limiting physical processes such as carrier transport and carrier capture-escape. Finally, the influence of the shape of the longitudinal carrier and photon density profiles on the modulation behavior is studied. We found that a better homogenization of these profiles for transversally optimized structures may slightly increase the bandwidth. This is further confirmed experimentally by comparing lasers of different profiles applying chirped DFB gratings implemented by bent waveguides.
We present a new method for the generation of short optical pulses in DFB-lasers with repetition rates from 10 to greater than 100 GHz. The method does not require any electronic HF-control and is based on cw-light injection into another cw operated DFB-laser. The pulse generation is studied by a transmission line laser model (TLLM) containing spatial hole burning and all relevant effects including spontaneous emission noise of complex coupled multisection DFB-lasers. A special pulse source has been optimized by the TLLM with respect to single-mode output power under cw-operation and yield. Modulation of pulse sequences by an external modulator has been simulated at bit-rates of 40 Gb/s. The effect of pulse broadening on long haul dispersion shifted single mode fiber (DSSF) transmission due to the spectral width is studied. Two by 20 Gb/s OTDM results are compared to 40 Gb/s direct external modulation.
We present results of an experimental investigation of the temperature sensitivity of separate confinement strained InGaAs/GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum well single-mode and multimode high power laser diodes (HPLDs). The HPLDs have been fabricated by use of MBE material and a 'wet' thermal oxidation process. Due to the high carrier confinement in the structure with two quantum wells (DQW) and Al-content x greater than 0.7 in the cladding layers an extremely high characteristic temperature T0 equals 350 K for broad area and T0 of 400 K around room temperature for single mode HPLDs with extremely low threshold current density were obtained. In spite of the high Al-content in the cladding layers (0.5 less than x less than 0.8) a very high catastrophic optical damage (COD) level (greater than 10 MW/cm2) and lifetimes of more than 10 kh at 100 mW (T equals 50 degrees Celsius) have been observed.
The strong influence of facet properties on wavelength shift and wavelength chirp is studied in uncoated and coated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. A detailed comparison is performed between various experimental laser data (spectra, electronic and thermal wavelength tunability, relative intensity noise, linewidth) and the results of model calculations combining rate equations and the transfer matrix method. From experimental data of different lasers, a set of physical DFB laser parameters is determined. We succeeded in describing all the experimental data of different lasers by the same parameter set. By use of this set and a large signal analysis we found that the wavelength chirp and the wavelength shift resulting from electronic effects including spatial hole burning varies considerably for different end facet phases (EFPs) and facet coatings, but otherwise identical DFB laser geometry.
Injection-locked directly current modulated semiconductor laser transmitters are theoretically investigated with respect to transmission performance. By large signal simulation of laser, standard single-mode fiber propagation and direct detection optically pre-amplified PIN receiver, transmission distances of 80-120 km at 10 Gb/s and 40-60 km at 15 Gb/s have been evaluated with a bit-error-rate < 10-9 with reasonable power penalty. Exploiting fiber nonlinearities with higher power launched into the fiber is demonstrated to increase the transmission distance by about 40%. Additionally the dynamics of the residual chirp of the laser is shown to act favorably on transmission performance. Guidelines for operation conditions of injection-locked lasers depending on detuning between laser and slave laser and injected power are given. Gain switching including optical feedback and the gain- levering effect have been investigated with respect to pulse production for optical time domain multiplexing. A new method for short pulse generation is presented. It is based on single frequency CW light injection into an unmodulated single mode laser under nonstable locking- conditions. Repetition frequencies larger than 150 GHz can be achieved. By soliton generation in a dispersion shifted fiber pulse widths of less than 3 ps FWHM with a squared hyperbolic cosecans shape can be generated.
Continuously and arbitrarily chirped distributed feedback (DFB) gratings of ultrahigh spatial precision for photonic components are implemented using bent waveguides on homogeneous grating fields. Choosing special bending functions, individual chirping functions and distributed phase shifts (PSs) are generated. Thus, additional degrees of freedom are obtained to tailor and improve specific device performances. This paper focuses on bending function design with respect to PS region extension, PS amount, bending radii, maximum tilt angles, threshold gain, photon density profile homogenization and side mode suppression ratio (SMSR). Continuously distributed PSs were implemented in DFB lasers revealing in the experiment reduced photon pile-ups, higher single axial mode stability, higher SMSR and higher yield than conventional abruptly phase-shifted (PS'ed) lasers. Second, multiple-section DFB lasers are implemented showing 5.5 nm wavelength tuning.
We report on the unexpected large influence of facet properties on wavelength shift and wavelength chirp in uncoated and coated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. A detailed comparison is performed between various experimental laser data (spectra, electronic and thermal wavelength tunability, relative intensity noise, linewidth) and the results of transfer matrix model calculations. From experimental data of different lasers, a set of physical DFB laser parameters was determined. We succeeded in describing all the experimental data of different lasers by the same parameter set. By use of this set we found that the wavelength chirp and the wavelength shift due to electronic effects including spatial hole burning varies considerably for different end facet phases and facet coatings, but otherwise identical DFB lasers.
We have studied wavelength tuning in three-section distributed feedback (DFB) laser diodes under pulsed and continuous biasing. In these devices the side sections are connected to each other enabling a tuning operation with two injection electrodes. The technological processes for the device fabrication are presented, emphasizing the preparation of the separation grooves. Under pulsed bias conditions we found a maximum modejump-free tuning range of 2.5 nm. The duty cycle was chosen appropriately in this case in order to isolate the nonthermal tuning effects. Under continuous biasing a maximum of total tuning range of 3.7 nm was measured in modejump-free operations. This value represents the interplay of all the wavelength tuning effects involved in these asymmetric three-section DFB lasers. Under both experimental conditions, pulsed and continuous biasing, comparably large modejump-free tuning ranges are obtained. Possible explanations of the enhanced wavelength tunability in these devices are discussed such as threshold gain modulation, plasma effect enhancement controlled by strong spatial hole burning, residual end facet phase effects, and asymmetric geometrical conditions for all section lengths and the position of the phase shift of the grating.
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