40-GHz mode-locked fiber-ring laser using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with integrated SOAs

Author

Schares, Laurent ; Paschotta, Rüdiger ; Occhi, Lorenzo ; Guekos, George

Author_Institution

Inst. of Quantum Electron., Swiss Fed. Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland

Volume

22

Issue

3

fYear

2004

fDate

3/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

859

Lastpage

873

Abstract

A 40-GHz mode-locked fiber-ring laser based on an optically controlled modulator is presented and analyzed in detail. The modulator is a monolithic InGaAsP-InP Mach-Zehnder interferometer with integrated semiconductor optical amplifiers, which allows optical pulse generation synchronized to an external optical clock pulse stream. The laser generates nearly transform-limited Gaussian pulses of 2.5-ps width and up to 9-mW mean output power with less than 130 fs of timing jitter, and it is wavelength tunable over more than 30 nm. The relationship between key laser parameters and the output pulse characteristics is analyzed experimentally and numerically. An improved cavity design permits the generation of shorter pulses of 1.0-ps width.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; erbium; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; integrated optoelectronics; laser beams; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; laser tuning; laser variables measurement; optical fibre amplifiers; optical fibre communication; optical modulation; ring lasers; semiconductor optical amplifiers; semiconductor quantum wells; timing jitter; 1.0 ps; 2.5 ps; 40 GHz; InGaAsP-InP; Mach-Zehnder interferometer; cavity design; integrated SOA; mean output power; mode-locked fiber-ring laser; monolithic InGaAsP-InP; optical pulse generation; optically controlled modulator; semiconductor optical amplifiers; timing jitter; transform-limited Gaussian pulses; wavelength tuning; Fiber lasers; Laser mode locking; Optical control; Optical interferometry; Optical modulation; Optical pulse generation; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse modulation; Semiconductor lasers; Stimulated emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2004.825778

Filename

1281951