Abstract

Ultrashort optical pulses with high repetition can be easily generated by directly modulated laser diodes. However, this method causes large frequency chirping which limits the bandwidth-distance product for high bit rate optical communication. Because the chirp-is nonlinear, it is difficult to obtain completely transform-limited pulses by using highly dispersive single mode fiber. Nakazawa et al¹ experimentally obtained the transform-limit. ed pulses from a gain-switched DFB laser diode using a narrow-band F-P resonator (FPR), and transmited these pulses as soliton source for optical soliton communication². However, Mollenauer et al³ asserted that such a source is also very likely to be subject to significant pulse-to-pulse frequency jitter, because no amount of filtering can completely eliminate chirp. In this paper, we will consider the dispersion of FPR, and it is showed that FPR could play the role not only in filtering but also in chirp compensation for gain-switched pulses. The transform-limited pulses can be obtained by designing parameters of FPR properly.

© 1993 Optical Society of America