Passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers and their applications

In this paper we present some characterizations of passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers. These lasers are multimode and they exhibit a modulation of their output power even though they are DC-biased. The modulation frequency corresponds to their free-spectral range. We demonstrate their potential: for generation of ultra-fast modulation for THz wave generation at room temperature without any direct modulations applied, in the radio frequency range they synchronise their modulation to the bit-rate of an incoming signal used for clock extraction. Therefore these devices can be used for all-optical clock recovery.