Modelocked diode lasers for ultra-wideband communications and signal processing

Modelocked semiconductor lasers are used to generate a set of phase locked optical frequencies on a periodic grid. The resulting optical frequency components can be used for communication applications relying on direct detection, dense WDM, coherent detection WDM, OTDM, and OCDMA. In addition, the periodic and phase coherent nature of the optical frequency combs make it possible for the realization of high performance optical and RF arbitrary waveform synthesis. This paper highlights recent results in the use of optical frequency combs for ultrawideband communication and signal processing applications.