Repetition rate control of optical self-injected passively mode-locked quantum-well lasers: experiment and simulation

• Published in: Electronics letters Vol. 54; no. 6; pp. 374 - 376
• Main Authors: Auth, D, Drzewietzki, L, Weber, C, Klehr, A, Knigge, A, Breuer, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 22.03.2018
• Subjects: delays; laser cavity resonators; laser feedback; laser mode locking; laser stability; laser tuning; locking range; OFB cavities; OFB delay length; optical pulse generation; optical self‐injected passively mode‐locked quantum‐well lasers; Photonics; pulse repetition rate tuning; pulse train timing stability; quantum well lasers; quantum‐well semiconductor lasers subject; QW SCL; repetition rate control; RR tuning; simple time‐domain model; single‐cavity optical self‐feedback; size 73.1 m; time‐delay ML laser stabilisation; timing jitter; timing jitter improvement; universal stochastic time‐domain model; repetition rate control; locking range; laser cavity resonators; optical self-injected passively mode-locked quantum-well lasers; OFB delay length; quantum-well semiconductor lasers subject; laser tuning; QW SCL; single-cavity optical self-feedback; pulse train timing stability; laser stability; timing jitter; simple time-domain model; pulse repetition rate tuning; optical pulse generation; OFB cavities; laser feedback; quantum well lasers; universal stochastic time-domain model; time-delay ML laser stabilisation; delays; laser mode locking; timing jitter improvement; RR tuning; size 73.1 m
• ISSN: 0013-5194; 1350-911X; 1350-911X
• DOI: 10.1049/el.2017.4768

The pulse repetition rate (RR) tuning and locking range (LR) as well as the pulse train timing stability of passively mode-locked quantum-well (QW) semiconductor lasers (SCLs) subject to single-cavity optical self-feedback (OFB) are investigated experimentally and by simulations. A simple and universal stochastic time-domain model confirms the experimentally observed RR control and LR as well as timing jitter (TJ) improvement in QW SCLs subject to very long OFB cavities with lengths up to 73.1 m. In particular, the model allows predicting control potential and limits of the RR tuning, locking and TJ improvement depending on the choice of OFB delay length for time-delay mode-locked semiconductor laser stabilisation experiments.