Abstract

Monolithic CPM lasers have attracted recent attention as a possible source of pulses for future high bit rate optical communications systems. Preliminary work has been reported by Wu et al.¹ and by Møller-Larsen.² It is envisioned that picosecond pulses from a low repetitionrate source (i.e., 16 GHz) can be electronically modulated and then interleaved to create an ultra-high bit-rate TDM channel. As part of a larger effort oriented around high-speed telecommunications, we have fabricated CPM lasers for use in data transmission experiments.³ Our CPM is shown in Fig. 1; the structure has been described in Refs. ^2,3 In modelocked operation, the gain sections are forward biassed; the center absorber section is reversed biassed, and acts as a saturable absorber. The laser can be either passively or hybridly modelocked. Under hybrid modelocking, an ≈16 GHz microwave signal is injected at the reverse-biased saturable absorber electrode.

© 1995 IEEE