Design and performance of externally modulated 1.5-μm laser transmitter in the presence of chromatic dispersion

Key laser and modulator characteristics that impact the use of externally modulated lasers in the presence of chromatic dispersion, excluding effects due to fiber nonlinearities, are reviewed. After a brief consideration of transmission performance with directly modulated 1.5-μm DFB lasers which have limited application of up to 80 km at 2.5 Gb/s, the key design characteristics of externally modulated transmitters are discussed. Experimental results showing the effects of modulator chirp and laser linewidth at a 2.5-Gb/s transmission rate are presented. It is found that lasers with CW linewidth under 100 MHz have less than 2-dB dispersion penalty for 600 km of non-dispersion-shifted fiber. Lower dispersion penalties can be realized if the modulator chirp is tuned so as to narrow the transmitted pulses. Excellent modulator stability is demonstrated for 60 days of error- and degradation-free 2.5-Gb/s operation