Abstract

Optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) is a promising technology for future high-speed transmission systems.¹ Recently, monolithic transmitters generating 8-ps pulses coded at 4.9 Gbit/s (Ref. 2) and generating 17-ps pulses at 10 Gbit/s (Ref. 3) were reported. To apply these transmitters to high-bit-rate OTDM, the pulse width must be reduced. Here, we describe an active mode-locked laser integrated with two electroabsorption (EA) modulators. The monolithic device produces 20-GHz pulses as short as 3 ps, and a pseudorandom signal is encoded at a rate of 20 Gbit/s.

© 1995 Optical Society of America