Experimental investigation of the impact of optical injection on vital parameters of a gain-switched pulse source

An analysis of optical injection on a gain-switched distributed feedback (DFB) laser and its impact on pulse parameters that influence the performance of the pulse source in high-speed optical communication systems is presented in this paper. A range of 10 GHz in detuning and 5 dB in injected power has been experimentally identified to attain pulses, from an optically injected gain-switched DFB laser, with durations below 10 ps and pedestal suppression higher than 35 dB. These pulse features are associated with a side mode suppression ratio of about 30 dB and a timing jitter of less than 1 ps. This demonstrates the feasibility of using optical injection in conjunction with appropriate pulse compression schemes for developing an optimized and cost-efficient pulse source, based on a gain-switched DFB laser, for high-speed photonic systems.     

Polarization Switching Bistability and Dynamics in Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser under Orthogonal Optical Injection

Bistability as well as dynamics associated to polarization switching in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) submitted to orthogonal optical injection from an external master laser are investigated. Intensity-polarization switching bistability is studied by increasing and decreasing the intensity of the injected beam and for a fixed frequency detuning, i.e. the frequency offset between master and the free running VCSEL. Depending on the frequency detuning, bistable switching is experimentally found to occur with or without injection locking of the fundamental mode to the master laser frequency. For large positive detuning, injection locking of the first-order transverse mode with a strong depression of the fundamental mode has been observed. The case of frequency – polarization switching bistability, i.e. when the frequency detuning is first decreased and then increased for a fixed injected power, has also been theoretically analyzed. Qualitative comparison with previous experimental work is presented for the dependence of the width of the bistable switching region on the injection strength level. Finally we show an experimental result of complicated dynamics including period doubling route to chaos that accompany polarization switching and which motivates future theoretical investigations.     

Exact laser line-width requirements evaluation for optical PSK homodyne communication systems with Dither loop

The laser line-width required in PSK homodyne communication systems with Dither phase-locked loop receivers are exactly evaluated. It is shown that second-order phase-locked loops require at least 0.2 pW of signal power per every Hz of laser line-width (this number refers to the system with the detector responsivity 0.94 A/W, damping ratio 0.707, and the phase error standard deviation 10°). This signal power is used for phase locking, and is, therefore lost from the data receiver. This study for the first time shows the imperfect-phase-recovery-induced power penalty as a function of laser line-width. It can be estimated from the theoretical result that an optimal dither phase locked-loop receiver requires the laser line-width as Δυ ≤ 3.14 × 10⁻⁵ × R_b, where R_b is the system bit rate. This number refers to the system with power penalty of 1 dB at BER = 10⁻¹⁰.     

Optical power equalization for upstream traffic with injection-locked Fabry-Perot lasers in TDM-PON

An optical power equalization of upstream traffic in time-division-multiplexed passive optical network (TDM-PON) based on injection-locked Fabry-Perot lasers has been experimentally investigated. The upstream transmitters with stable spectrum are achieved by using an external injection light source in the optical line terminal (OLT). The different upstream powers can be equalized by injection locking a Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD) biased below threshold current in OLT. The dynamic upstream power range from − 8.5 to − 19.5 db m is reduced to a 1.6 dB maximal power variation, when the uplink signal is directly modulated at 1.25 Gb/s.     

Mutual injection locking of an erbium-doped fiber laser and a fiber-pigtailed Fabry-Perot laser diode

Mutual injection locking of a fiber-pigtailed Fabry-Perot laser diode (FPLD) and a closed-loop erbium-doped fiber-amplifier-based laser (EDFL) system are studied. A single FPLD longitudinal mode can be lasing in the EDFL-FPLD link, with a reduced linewidth of <0.017 nm and an improved sidemode-suppressing ratio of 50 dB. The FPLD's optimized current range is below threshold within 10%, and its required feedback-injecting power is 12.4 microW (corresponding to 0.03% of the EDFL output power). The maximum detuning ranges of the current and temperature of the FPLD that preserve the narrow linewidth and the highest sidemode-suppressing ratio of the EDFL-FPLD link are 2.4 mA and 2.2 degrees C, respectively. The power dissipated by the EDFL-FPLD link is 20% more than that of the free-running EDFL.     

Plasmonic modulator utilizing three parallel metal-dielectric-metal waveguide directional coupler and elasto-optic effects

We report, for the first time, on the design of a plasmonic modulator working on the principle of the elasto-optic effects in a directional coupling structure, utilizing three parallel metal-dielectric-metal waveguides. We propose to achieve the active switching of the power propagation using the elasto-optic effect and optimize the extinction ratio of the optical modulation. The device is characterized and numerically analyzed using the finite-element-method at the wavelengths of 1.55 μm. For the modulator length of 2.33 μm, the extinction ratio of the modulation is nearly 14 dB, and the calculated attenuation loss is 4.5 dB. The calculated driving voltage is 4.8 V for the given modulator. The effect of the applied voltage on the modulation is also analyzed.     

Characterization of 60 GHz Multi Quantum well passively mode-locked laser under optical self-injection locking

The quality and pulse compression of the 60 GHz millimeter wave signals generated by 750 μm long InAlGaAs Multi Quantum Well (MQW) passively mode locked laser under free running and optical self-injection locked conditions are experimentally characterized in terms of longitudinal modes under certain bias currents that range from 24 mA to 90 mA. Initially, the MQW laser is characterized in free running condition with no external injection. The measurements reflect that the free spectral range of laser under test is around 61 GHz and exhibit more than 22 lasing modes. The laser is then integrated into low phase noise self-injection locking oscillator by feeding a part of output RF signal back into the laser cavity to enhance passive mode locking. By doing so the microwave line width of our laser is reduced from 900 kHz to 24 kHz with significant increase in output of resultant beat tones which exhibits strong passive mode locking. This is the first time that the free running microwave line width of MQW laser is reduced up to this level. It is evident from our experimental investigation that as we increase the power and phase correlation between different longitudinal modes inside laser cavity through optical self-injection, the strength of the passively mode locked mechanism is significantly increased and the phase noise of radio frequency signal is drastically reduced.     

An ultrafast all-optical asymmetric Fabry-Pérot switch based on bulk Be-doped InGaAsP grown by He-plasma-assisted epitaxy

We demonstrated ultrafast all-optical switching, using an asymmetric Fabry-Pérot device, based on bulk Be-doped InGaAsP grown by He-plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. We achieved 5 ps switching window (1/e fall time) and a peak contrast ratio of 20 dB at 1.57 μm. High contrast (> 10 dB) was maintained over ～24 nm of bandwidth under switching energy density of 0.5 pJ/μm², and over ～40 nm of bandwidth when switching energy density was increased to 1.4 pJ/μm². The switching operation was independent of data pulse polarization, and could be potentially performed at high repetition rates.     

Switching time in optically bistable injection-locked semiconductor lasers

Switching between states in a dispersive bistable injection-locked slave laser has been theoretically investigated. We show that the switching can be achieved by relatively small and short (≈10-50?ps) variation of the master laser injection power or frequency, which, besides the variation of the slave laser optical power, leads to significant variation of its photon phase (≈5π/6). By using an analytical model, we calculate the switching time dependence on the magnitude of the injection power and the frequency detuning variation.     

Experimental study of SOA-based NRZ-to-PRZ conversion and distortion elimination of amplified NRZ signal using spectral filtering

We experimentally study both reshaping of nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signal and NRZ to pseudoreturn-to-zero (PRZ) format conversion based on self-phase modulation of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and detuning an optical bandpass filter (OBF). When an OBF with 1 nm bandwidth is blue shifted by 0.8 nm, the distortion of the amplified NRZ signal at 10 Gbit/s is shown to be eliminated completely. When an OBF with 0.32 nm bandwidth is red shifted by 0.42 nm from the carrier frequency, NRZ-to-PRZ conversion at 10 Gbit/s is obtained. A holding beam is used to suppress the SOA noise and improve the output extinction ratio (ER). The output ER of both the reshaped NRZ and the converted PRZ is larger than 10 dB when the signal wavelength is longer than 1540 nm, and an input power dynamic range from −7 dBm to 2 dBm is obtained at a signal wavelength of 1563.6 nm. The average power of the reshaped NRZ signal is about 3 dBm at an input power dynamic range of 13 dB. The amplitude fluctuation of the converted PRZ signal is around 1.6 dB.     

Ultrafast dynamics of BixSb1-x film studied by femtosecond pump-probe technique

The Bi_xSb_1-x film is an important phase change material. The ultrafast dynamics of Bi_xSb_1-x film is studied by the femtosecond pump-probe technique with an 80 fs pulsed laser. Experimental results show that the reflectivity change increases with the fluence of the pump laser. The fast increase of the reflectivity occurs between 100 and 800 fs. Subsequently, the slower recovery of the reflectivity on a time scale of 1.24-18.3 ps is detected. We also found that the reflectivity change can be greatly affected by the ratio between Bi and Sb composition in Bi_xSb_1-x materials with x = 0.2 and 0.88. These experimental results should be helpful for developing new devices with ultrafast dynamics of Bi_xSb_1-x film and ultrafast optical switching.     

Selective injection locking of a multi-mode semiconductor laser to a multi-frequency reference beam

Injection locking is a well known and commonly used method for coherent light amplification. Usually injection locking is obtained on a single-mode laser injected by a single-frequency seeding beam. In this work we show that selective injection locking of a single-frequency may also be achieved on a multi-mode semiconductor laser injected by a multi-frequency seeding beam, if the slave laser provides sufficient frequency filtering. This selective injection locking condition depends critically on the frequency detuning between the free-running slave emission frequency and each injected frequency component. Stable selective injection locking to a set of three seeding components separated by 1.2 GHz is obtained. This system provides an amplification up to 37 dB of each component. This result suggests that, using distinct slave lasers for each frequency line, a set of mutually coherent high-power radiation modes can be tuned in the GHz frequency domain.     

高功率微波振荡器的相位控制

基于相对论返波管振荡器,提出了一种小信号牵引相位控制的方法,通过外加小信号对振荡器起振过程的引导,实现对输出微波的相位控制。相比于传统的方法,该方法可以利用ns量级的脉冲在较宽的带宽和较低的注入功率下实现对高功率微波振荡器的相位控制。在X波段相对论返波管振荡器相位控制实验中,利用百kW级的小信号,实现了对GW级高功率微波的输出相位控制,相位抖动小于±15°。     

Observation of optical bistability in a GaAlAs semiconductor laser under intermodal injection locking

Experimental observation of optical bistability in a semiconductor laser under intermodal injection locking is reported for what is believed to be the first time. It is seen that a change in injection power of several microwatts or master laser frequency detuning of a few hundred megahertz can induce a change of as much as several hundred gigahertz in the lasing frequency of the slave laser. The results are in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions.     

Frequency noise suppression in a diode laser locked to a travelling wave resonator incorporating a Brewster prism

A polarisation locking technique was applied to stabilise an extended cavity diode laser using a travelling wave resonator incorporating a Brewster prism. Despite the fact that the employed unbalanced detection was sensitive to optical power fluctuations, the in-loop photodetector measured 90 dB of noise suppression at 10 Hz in comparison to the free running frequency noise spectrum. Excess intensity noise measured with an out-of-loop detector, indicated the presence of correction-correlated noise in the output of the stabilised diode laser.     

Experiments of all-optical switching due to cross-phase modulation in fiber grating coupler by lock-in amp. detection scheme

We report results of experiments examining cross-phase modulation effect on fiber grating coupler (FGC). All-optical switching are observed in both cases of high pump pulses emitted from high-power Nd:YAG laser and mode-locked EDF laser. Based on coherent detection using a lock-in amplifier, the red-shift of the Bragg wavelength for a FGC was estimated to be 0.04-0.06 nm/1.5-1.7 kW peak power of EDF pump light at 1.55 μm. To avoid mixture of pump pulse and signal light at 1.55 μm, we have also performed the experiment using high power Nd:YAG laser as a pump power. For a Nd:YAG laser, the red-shift of Bragg wavelength is estimated to be 0.06 nm at maximum pump power of 2.1 kW. A simple model for the proposed detection scheme is given and the resultant red-shift is analyzed numerically.     

Tunable 19 × 10 GHz L-band FP-SOA based multi-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser

We present a multi-wavelength mode-locked fiber ring laser incorporating a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a Fabry-Perot semiconductor optical amplifier (FP-SOA). Because the gain of the SOA is depleted by an external injection optical signal, the SOA acts as a loss modulator. The FP-SOA serves as a tunable comb filter. The presented laser source can generate 19 synchronized wavelength channels with the extinction ratio of about 21 dB, each mode-locked at 10 GHz, and mode-locked pulse width is about 40 ps. Oscillation wavelengths band can be tuned by adjusting the bias current of the SOA, and wavelength spacing also can be changed by using a tunable optical delay line (ODL) or a temperature controller. The polarization-insensitive devices ensure that the output power is rather stable. This fiber laser has potential applications in longer waveband (L-band) within the low-attenuation window.     

Using Fabry-Perot laser diode and reflective semiconductor optical amplifier for long reach WDM-PON system

In this investigation, we propose and investigate the simple self-injection locked Fabry-Perot laser diodes (FP-LDs) in optical line terminal (OLT); and wavelength-tunable optical network unit (ONU) using reflective optical semiconductor amplifier (RSOA) and FP-LD laser for downstream and upstream traffic in long reach (LR) wavelength division multiplexed-passive optical network (WDM-PON) respectively. The output performance of the proposed two laser sources in terms of power and side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) has been discussed. Here, for the downstream traffic, the proposed optical transmitter can be directly modulated at 2.5 Gb/s on-off keying (OOK) format with nearly 0.4 dB power penalty at bit error rate (BER) of 10⁻⁹ through 75 km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmission. Moreover, the proposed upstream transmitter can be directly modulated at 1.25 and 2.5 Gb/s with nearly 0.5 and 1.1 dB power penalty, respectively, at the BER of 10⁻⁹.     

Laser scribing of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films deposited on various substrates for touch panels

In this study, a Nd:YAG laser with wavelength of 1064 nm is used to scribe the indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films coated on three types of substrate materials, i.e. soda-lime glass, polycarbonate (PC), and cyclic-olefin-copolymer (COC) materials with thickness of 20 nm, 30 nm, and 20 nm, respectively. The effect of exposure time adjusted from 10 μs to 100 μs on the ablated mark width, depth, and electrical properties of the scribed film was investigated. The maximum laser power of 2.2 W was used to scribe these thin films. In addition, the surface morphology, surface reaction, surface roughness, optical properties, and electrical conductivity properties were measured by a scanning electron microscope, a three-dimensional confocal laser scanning microscope, an atomic force microscope, and a four-point probe. The measured results of surface morphology show that the residual ITO layer was produced on the scribed path with the laser exposure time at 10 μs and 20 μs. The better edge qualities of the scribed lines can be obtained when the exposure time extends from 30 μs to 60 μs. When the laser exposure time is longer than 60 μs, the partially burned areas of the scribed thin films on PC and COC substrates are observed. Moreover, the isolated line width and resistivity values increase when the laser exposure time increases.     

High-capacity and security packet switching using the nonlinear effects in micro ring resonators

We propose a new design of secured packet switching generated by using nonlinear behaviors of light in a micro ring resonator. The use of chaotic signals generated by the micro ring resonator to form the filtering and packet switching characteristics is described, where the high-capacity and security switching using such form is presented. The key advantage is that the high capacity of communication data can be secured in the transmission link, where the nonlinear penalty of light traveling in the device is beneficial. For instance, the required information can be transmitted and retrieved by using the proposed packet switching scheme. In principle, the chaotic signals are generated by a Kerr effects nonlinear type of light in a micro ring resonator, where the control input power can be specified by the required output filtering signals. The ring radii used range between 10 and 20 μm, κ=0.0225, α=0.5 dB and n₂=2.2×10⁻¹⁵ m²/W. Simulation results obtained have been described based on the practical device parameters. Three forms of the applications have been simulated, the potential of using for the tunable band pass and band stop filters, in which high-capacity packet switching data can be performed, and the fs switching time is plausible.