Abstract

Shot-noise-limited laser operation over a wide spectral bandwidth is demonstrated by using a semiconductor active medium inserted into a high-Q external cavity. This approach ensures, with a compact design, a sufficiently long photon lifetime to reach the oscillation-relaxation-free class A regime. The laser relative intensity noise is limited to the shot-noise relative floor, $-156\mathrm{dB}∕\mathrm{Hz}$ for a $1\mathrm{mA}$ detected photocurrent, over the $100\mathrm{MHz}\text{to}18\mathrm{GHz}$ bandwidth. The optimization of the laser cavity is discussed, and convenient shot-noise-limited operation is shown to be a trade-off between the cavity length and laser mode filtering.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Broad-bandwidth shot-noise-limited class-A operation of a monomode semiconductor fiber-based ring laser

Ghaya Baili, Mehdi Alouini, Chantal Moronvalle, Daniel Dolfi, and Fabien Bretenaker
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Experimental investigation of relative intensity noise in Brillouin fiber ring lasers for microwave photonics applications

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Electrically pumped shot-noise limited class A VECSEL at telecom wavelength

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Evidence of ultra low microwave additive phase noise for an optical RF link based on a class-A semiconductor laser.

Ghaya Baili, Mehdi Alouini, Thierry Malherbe, Daniel Dolfi, Jean-Pierre Huignard, Thomas Merlet, Jean Chazelas, Isabelle Sagnes, and Fabien Bretenaker
Opt. Express 16(14) 10091-10097 (2008)

Class-A operation of an optically-pumped 1.6 µm-emitting quantum dash-based vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser on InP

Salvatore Pes, Cyril Paranthoën, Christophe Levallois, Nicolas Chevalier, Cyril Hamel, Kevin Audo, Goulc’hen Loas, Steve Bouhier, Carmen Gomez, Jean-Christophe Harmand, Sophie Bouchoule, Hervé Folliot, and Mehdi Alouini
Opt. Express 25(10) 11760-11766 (2017)