Pulsation stabilization and enhancement in self-pulsating laser diodes

Author

Simler, Yaron ; Gamelin, John ; Wang, Shyh

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

4

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

4/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

329

Lastpage

332

Abstract

The authors report stabilization and enhancement of the optical pulses of self-pulsating laser diodes using a combination of self-injection locking and frequency locked loops. A record short term stability of one part in 1,500,000 (3 dB linewidth of less than 800 Hz at 1.3 GHz) was readily achieved with continuous tunability from 600 MHz to over 3 GHz (harmonics to over 12 GHz). The reduction in timing jitter resulted in a <10 dB improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio, making self-pulsating lasers a potential source of ultrastable picosecond pulses in both the optical and the electrical domains. The latter characteristics make self-pulsating lasers an attractive candidate for widely tunable microwave oscillators or sources for optical (electrical) sampling.<>

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; laser beams; laser mode locking; laser tuning; semiconductor junction lasers; spectral line breadth; 1.3 GHz; continuous tunability; electrical sampling; frequency locked loops; harmonics; laser pulse enhancement; laser pulse stabilisation; linewidth; optical pulses; optical sampling; self-injection locking; self-pulsating laser diodes; short term stability; signal-to-noise ratio; timing jitter; ultrastable picosecond pulses; widely tunable microwave oscillators; Diode lasers; Frequency locked loops; Laser stability; Masers; Microwave oscillators; Optical pulses; Sampling methods; Signal to noise ratio; Timing jitter; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.127203

Filename

127203