Effect of cross saturation on frequency fluctuations in a nearly single-mode semiconductor laser

Author

Gray, George R. ; Agrawal, Govind P.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Opt., Rochester Univ., NY, USA

Volume

3

Issue

3

fYear

1991

fDate

3/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

204

Lastpage

206

Abstract

The effect of side-mode cross-saturation on the frequency noise of the main mode of a nearly-single-mode laser is investigated by considering the Langevin rate equations which contain the nonlinear gain with both the self-saturation and cross-saturation terms. When cross-saturation is stronger than self-saturation, the frequency noise of the main mode is found to be significantly enhanced in the low-frequency regime (<1 GHz). An increase of more than 20 dB is predicted due to a side mode suppressed by 15-20 dB. The enhanced frequency noise results in broadening of the laser linewidth and may affect the performance of coherent optical communication systems.<>

Keywords

electron device noise; fluctuations; laser modes; laser theory; optical saturation; semiconductor junction lasers; 1 GHz; DFB diode lasers; Langevin rate equations; coherent optical communication systems; frequency fluctuations; frequency noise; laser linewidth broadening; laser modes; low-frequency regime; main mode; nearly single-mode semiconductor laser; nonlinear gain; self-saturation; side-mode cross-saturation; Fluctuations; Frequency; Laser modes; Laser noise; Low-frequency noise; Nonlinear equations; Optical fiber communication; Optical noise; Semiconductor device noise; Semiconductor lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.79754

Filename

79754