A narrow-linewidth semiconductor laser chip with highly linear frequency modulation response is presented and validated in two coherent sensing test experiments. This distributed feedback laser monolithic chip has an intrinsic linewidth of less than 10 kHz and an output power over 60 mW. When its injection current is modulated by a triangular function, the laser optical frequency can be modulated by more than 7 GHz at rates up to 100 kHz. The laser frequency modulation response is extremely flat up to 100 MHz, which allows correcting the residual sweep nonlinearities by a proper pre-distortion of the modulation signal. In a first test experiment, the laser was used into a monostatic FMCW lidar system. A point cloud was acquired with a field of view of 20°(H) × 10°(V) and an angular resolution of 0.05° along both axes. The acquisition was performed without averaging using a 7 mm diameter output beam of 100 mW. A high-quality point cloud including several objects of varying reflectivity was measured. In a second test experiment, the laser was used into an OFDR system for a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) experiment. A short portion of a 50 m long SMF-28 fiber was exposed to a 2 kHz acoustic signal. Processed data clearly shows a strong 2 kHz tone at the location of the acoustic perturbation. In both test experiments, the laser was successfully linearized using modulation signal pre-distortion based on interferograms obtained with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.
To support enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communication, 5G is going to use new radios (NRs) at frequencies above 24.25 GHz in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands with abundant available bandwidths. The photonic generation, modulation and distribution of such ultra-high speed broadband RF signals in the optical domain is more promising compared to the bandwidth limiting electrical technology, however, it requires low noise coherent optical sources. In this paper, we present a highly coherent low noise InP-based p-n block buried heterostructure (BH) C-band InAs/InP quantum dash (QD) passively mode-locked laser (MLL) for photonic aided broadband wireless communication systems. The device features repetition rates of 25 GHz resulting in an optical coherent frequency comb (CFC) with a 6-dB optical bandwidth of around 9 nm providing over 46 channels. Each individual channel of the CFC exhibits an average phase noise and integrated relative intensity noise (RIN) of less than 500 kHz and -130 dB/Hz in the frequency range from 10 MHz to 20 GHz, respectively. Its timing jitter and RF beat-note linewidth between any two adjacent channels are as low as 5.53 fs and 3 kHz, respectively. By using this QD MLL, a photonic aided radio-over-fiber (RoF) broadband quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) signal wireless delivery at around 25 GHz (K-band) is successfully demonstrated over 2-m free space wireless distance through 25.22 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) with a total link capacity of 16Gbit/s and error vector magnitude (EVM) below the standard requirements of 12.5%.
Photonic generations of millimeter-wave (mmW) frequencies (30 GHz – 300 GHz) have been attracted more and more interest for applications in 5G and beyond wireless networks. To generate high-quality mmW signals, it requires optical sources with ultra-narrow optical linewidth and low relative intensity noise (RIN). In recent years, we have demonstrated InAs/InP quantum dot / dash (QD) multi-wavelength lasers (QD MWLs) around 1550 nm with the frequency spacing from 10 GHz to 1000 GHz and output power of up to 50 mW. Those QD MWLs have low RIN, ultra-narrow optical linewidth, small timing jitters, compact size, low power consumption and the ability for hybrid integration with silicon substrates. As examples we present a monolithic dual-wavelength (DW) DFB laser based on synthesized aperiodic gratings on InAs/InP QD gain medium and its application as an optical beat source for mmW signal generation. The QD DW-DFB laser is capable of generating spectrally pure mmW signals between 46 GHz and 48 GHz with the 3-dB RF beating linewidth of less than 16 KHz and the RIN of -158 dB/Hz from 10 MHz to 20 GHz. By using this QD DW-DFB laser, we have experimentally demonstrated a multi-gigabit/s mmW radio-over-fiber (mmW-RoF) communication system operating at 47 GHz with 16QAM, 32QAM and 64QAM modulated signals over single mode fiber (SMF) in terms of clear eye and constellation diagrams. We have achieved an optical-heterodyne mmW-RoF system with broadband 4-meter wireless links through 25.22-km SMF featuring a high bitrate of 24-Gbit/s (64QAM × 4-GBaud) using a QD DW-DFB laser.
We have designed and fabricated a quantum dot (QD) gain medium which consists of InAs QDs in an InGaAsP matrix
on an InP substrate. By using these InAs/InP QD layers, we have generated femtosecond (fs) pulses with pulse duration
of 295 fs from a single-section monolithic Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity at the repetition rate of 50 GHz around 1560 nm
wavelength range without any external pulse compression. The average output power is 40.1 mW at the injection current
of 200 mA. Optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of the proposed QD mode-locked laser (QD-MLL) is up to 50 dB. The
lasing threshold current and the external differential quantum efficiency are 23 mA and 30 %, respectively. And the
mode beating linewidth was measured to be less than 20 KHz. We have interpreted that several nonlinear optical effects
related to interaction of QD excitons with intracavity laser fields could create nonlinear dispersion to compensate
intracavity linear dispersion. So total dispersion is minimized and four-wave mixing (FWM) is dramatically enhanced
within QD F-P cavity. If spectral bandwidth is broad enough, tens or hundreds of longitudinal modes would lase and
their phases would be locked together through FWM process. Eventually a train of fs pulses with a repetition rate
corresponding to cavity round-trip time is generated.
We have demonstrated a novel approach to achieve a stable multi-wavelength laser system (MWLS) which is making
use of a quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD SOA) as a highly birefringence material and an optical
polarizer at the same time. Both the channel frequency spacing and the central lasing wavelength of the QD MWLS can
be accurately set by using the desired-designed QD SOA with the certain operation conditions and by setting the
polarization controller properly. The detailed working principles and the experimental results have been reported in this
paper. The proposed QD MWLS technology can be used for characterizing the intrinsic properties of the QD
semiconductor waveguide materials that could also be used for spectral narrowing of a laser system. We have
experimentally confirmed that the QD SOA is highly inhomogeneous gain material as compared with QW SOA.
We have designed, fabricated and characterized self-assembled InAs/InGaAsP QD-waveguide devices around 1.55 μm.
In order to obtain optimal performance, we have investigated several QD-based semiconductor optical amplifiers
(SOAs) / lasers with different core geometry and doped profiles. To make the fair comparison between QD-SOA and
QW-SOA, InAs/InGaAsP QW-SOAs with the same structure and the doped profiles have been designed and
characterized. The experimental results indicate the QD-SOA is much better than QW-SOA in term of optical spectral
bandwidth, temperature sensitivity and output power stability. The
3-dB and 10-dB bandwidths of the amplified
spontaneous emission (ASE) spectra of the QD-SOA are 150 nm and 300 nm around 1520 nm. By using CW pump and
probe signals we have demonstrated a non-degenerated four-wave mixing (ND-FWM) process and the experimental
results indicate that the asymmetry of the FWM conversion efficiencies is eliminated by using the QD-SOA. To make
use of the inhomogeneous broadening which is one of the specific properties of QD waveguide devices, we have
designed and investigated the QD-based multi-wavelength semiconductor laser. A stable multi-wavelength laser output
with a 93-channel multi-wavelength laser with maximum channel intensity non-uniformity of 3-dB were demonstrated
on the basis of a single InAs/InGaAsP QD F-P cavity chip. All channels were ultra-stable because of the inhomogeneous
gain broadening due to statistically distributed sizes and geometries of self-assembled QDs.
The room-temperature 1.55 &mgr;m continuous-wave (CW) operation of single-lateral mode GaInNAsSb ridge
waveguide lasers grown on GaAs is reported.
Detailed measurements of the light output power and spectral properties were used to assess the device characteristics
as a function of applied current and temperature in both CW and pulsed operation. An exemplary, 3&mgr;×750&mgr;m,
device with a 92% high-reflectivity back facet coating exhibited a record low CW threshold current of 63~mA, with a peak output power of 15~mW.
High-resolution modal gain spectra were extracted from amplified spontaneous emission measurements yielding the
internal loss (8.0~cm-1, transparency current (50~mA) and the wavelength dependence of the differential gain.
The latter was used with careful measurements of the Fabry-Perot mode shift with injection current to determine
the linewidth enhancement factor of 2.8 at the transparency current. The first measurement of intrinsic modulation frequency in 1.55 &mgr;m GaInNAsSb lasers is
reported, based on the observed relative intensity noise (RIN). The RIN measurements indicate a maximum modulation frequency of 7.2~GHz,
which is a promising result for future telecommunications applications.
The properties of a 1.3μm GaInNAs Double Quantum Well (QW) ridge waveguide (RWG) laser have been systematically studied for GaAs based uncooled long wavelength lasers. The threshold current, transparency current, optical gain, internal loss and quantum efficiency characteristics were assessed by light-current (L-I) measurement using devices with different geometries. Measurements of gain spectra versus injection current and temperature were taken and used to analyze GaInNAs as an active material in terms of gain, loss and transparency. The experimental observations are discussed. The results are compared with those obtained from lasers made by other conventional materials. The high characteristic temperature (T0=155K from 20°C to 75°C) and comparable stimulated emission to InP based lasers offer the promise of application as a light source for low cost data communication systems.
High hydrostatic pressure can be used for wavelength tuning of semiconductor laser diodes in a wide spectral range. Coupling the laser with external grating leads to wavelength tuning within the gain spectrum (i.e. in a narrower range than with pressure) but allows for a narrow emission line and nearly continuous tuning (mode-hop free if anti-reflecting coating is applied). Here we demonstrate a combination of pressure and external-resonator tuning for the GaInNAs laser emitting at 1343 nm at ambient conditions. Using the specially designed liquid pressure cell working up to 20 kbar we shift the emission down to 1170 nm while the external grating (used in Littrow configuration) allows for fine tuning in the ~10 nm range (at each pressure).
Transparency current density (Jtr) was studied in GaInNAs ridge waveguide lasers. The devices employ Ga1-xInxNyAs1-y multiple quantum wells and were grown on GaAs substrates using solid-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with an RF plasma cell. The transparency current density is sensitive to material quality: defects, traps and other sources of non-radiative recombination. It is also dependent on the rate of thermionic emission from quantum wells. Wavelength, polarization and temperature dependence of transparency carrier density of annealed material was studied. Record low transparency carrier densities of 20 and 90 A/cm2/well were observed (for TM and TE polarizations) in devices based on GaInNAs material designed for emission at 1340 nm after optimized rapid thermal annealing. This low value of Jtr confirms the excellent quality of the GaInNAs material and demonstrates that GaInNAs lasers with excellent material properties can be grown for long wavelength applications provided appropriate annealing is applied. It is believed that the low transparency current density is a unique feature of GaInNAs and is due to the band structure and band alignment of the material system.
Two dimensional finite element analysis of the carrier transport in a 1.55 micrometer floating grating (FG) high power DFB to be used in conjunction with an external modulator as a high bit rate source, has shown that carrier accumulation and crowding for the etch-through grating layers resulted in current being diverted from narrow bandgap sections into the wider band gap sections of the grating. This augments undesirable heating and thermal degradation in laser L-I. To decrease this effect, three changes to the device parameters have been examined. Heavy doping and the use of wider bandgap FG region have been shown to reduce the thermal effects. Thinning the FG layer has little effect. A transfer matrix method (TMM) thermal model has been used to evaluate the performance of the improved structure. The results compared well with measured data and the analysis shows that efficiencies of 0.38 mW/mA and maximum power 100 mW for AR-cleaved are obtainable with the improved FG design.
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