Phase correlation between longitudinal modes in semiconductor self-pulsating DBR lasers

Phase correlation leading to self-pulsation (SP) in semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Under proper biasing conditions, the laser oscillates with three main modes and we observe that each two-modes beating provides SP with identical spectral linewidth. Under the same operating conditions, the measured spectral linewidths of the beating modes are much larger than the linewidth of the self-pulsating signal. These results demonstrate the natural occurrence of passive mode-locking (PML) and phase correlation in semiconductor DBR lasers. A model based on multimode coupled-wave rate equations, including four-wave mixing (FWM), is developed to describe PML and SP in the gain region of the laser cavity. This model demonstrates that the existence of phase correlation between longitudinal modes is due to FWM.

[1]  Bruno Lavigne,et al.  40GHz all-optical clock recovery using polarization-insensitive distributed bragg reflector lasers , 2003, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2003. CLEO '03..

[2]  Philippe Gallion,et al.  Analysis of the phase-amplitude coupling factor and spectral linewidth of distributed feedback and composite-cavity semiconductor lasers , 1990 .

[3]  K. A. Shore,et al.  Theory of self-locking FM operation in semiconductor lasers , 1991 .

[4]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Highly nondegenerate four‐wave mixing in semiconductor lasers due to spectral hole burning , 1987 .

[5]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Population pulsations and nondegenerate four-wave mixing in semiconductor lasers and amplifiers , 1988 .

[6]  K. Sato,et al.  Optical pulse generation using fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot lasers under continuous-wave operation , 2003 .

[7]  B. Sartorius,et al.  Detuned grating multi-section-RW-DFB-lasers for high speed optical signal processing , 2000, Conference Digest. 2000 IEEE 17th International Semiconductor Laser Conference. (Cat. No.00CH37092).

[8]  A. Bogatov,et al.  Anomalous interaction of spectral modes in a semiconductor laser , 1975 .

[9]  L. F. Tiemeijer,et al.  Passive FM locking in InGaAsP semiconductor lasers , 1989 .

[10]  A. Willner.  Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIB , 1997 .

[11]  Toshiro Isu,et al.  Mode locking in Fabry-Perot semiconductor lasers , 2002 .

[12]  G. Agrawal,et al.  Importance of self-induced carrier-density modulation in semiconductor lasers , 1992, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[13]  Cheolhwan Kim,et al.  Wavelength and polarization insensitive all-optical clock recovery from 96-Gb/s data by using a two-section gain-coupled DFB laser , 2003, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.