Abstract

Timing jitter and frequency chirp are of considerable importance for practical applications of semiconductor lasers and for pulse generation and propagation in optical fibers. They cause a degradation of the temporal resolution and severely limit the distance of propagation of optical pulses inside the fiber. On the other hand, optical feedback is an important effect to take into account in optical communication systems. Feedback coming from short external cavities appears to be important in optical integrated devices, where reflexions from the different components of the circuit can influence the laser performance. Recent works¹ have shown that timing jitter strongly increases for certain positions of the external reflector in short external cavities (≲ 10 mm).

© 1994 IEEE