Design of low‐timing‐jitter, stable picosecond optical‐pulse source using an uncooled gain‐switched Fabry–Perot semiconductor laser with external continuous‐wave light injection

This paper presents the design of a low‐timing‐jitter, stable picosecond optical‐pulse source, which is based on a low‐cost, uncooled Fabry–Perot (FP) semiconductor laser in the gain‐switching operation. The wavelength of the designed laser can be tuned from 1538 to 1554 nm under the condition of external continuous‐wave (CW) light injection. The relationship between injection light power and timing jitter or between injection light power and pulse width of this gain‐switched laser is studied experimentally. Our results show that the optical pulses with widths about 28 and 19 ps at the repetition frequencies of 2.5 and 5 GHz, respectively, are produced by an uncooled gain‐switched FP semiconductor laser with timing jitter ≤600 fs, when the injection power and wavelength of an external CW light are appropriately chosen. The use of a 500‐m dispersion‐compensation fiber can easily compress the optical pulses from 26 to 7.7 ps. Moreover, the stability of an uncooled gain‐switched FP laser is experimentally investigated, and a stable optical‐pulse train at 5 GHz can be feasibly produced over 7 h of continuously working. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26176