High-Bandwidth Operation of Optically Controlled Semiconductor Laser With External Cavity

A high-speed optically controlled semiconductor laser was numerically and experimentally demonstrated by integrating a phase controllable external cavity with a single mode semiconductor laser. It was numerically confirmed that the laser source can be operated at up to 50 GHz when the lasing-mode gain was directly controlled by an optical signal. The optically controlled semiconductor laser, which has an optimally designed structure using the results from the numerical analysis, was fabricated. A broad 3-dB bandwidth of >30 GHz was experimentally confirmed, which was the limit of the measurement system bandwidth of the experimental setup.