Abstract

A high power source is necessary in the development of efficient semiconductor nonlinear optical switches at 1.55 μm to aid in the assessment and optimization process.^1,2 The laser system of Fig. 1 was therefore constructed to generate pulses with peak powers of several hundred Watts at 1.55 μm. The DFB laser was biased below threshold and driven at a repetition rate of 250 MHz with electrical impulses from the comb generator. Negatively chirped gain-switched pulses with FWHM pulsewidths of 20-25 ps and spectral widths of approximately 2 nm were obtained at the output of the laser diode for the operating conditions indicated in Fig. 1, and linear compression down to 3 ps was achieved by passing the pulse through 275 m of dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF) with a dispersion coefficient D = −52 ps/ km. nm.

© 1996 Optical Society of America