Measurements and simulation of multipath interference for 1.7-Gb/slightwave transmission systems using single- and multifrequency lasers

Power penalties due to multipath interference (MPI) have been measured for 1.7-Gb/s lightwave systems that use single-frequency (SF) or multifrequency (MF) lasers. Systems that use SF lasers potentially exhibit worse degradation than those using MF lasers. Bit-error-rate (BER) floors occur only under the worse-case conditions of poor receiver margin and large multiple reflections. The use of optical isolation to reduce laser feedback is ineffective in reducing multipath interference, and in many cases may worsen the penalty. It is shown that for a typical transmission system, these degradations are reduced if optical interconnection reflections are maintained below -20.5 dB. The experimental study is in good agreement with theoretical predictions using an analytic expression of the MPI noise power spectral density and with computer simulations using multimode laser rate equations     

Monolithic integration of multiple quantum well DFB lasers and electroabsorption modulators

Advanced fibre optics telecommunication systems rely on high performance components amongst which photonic integrated circuits (PICs) play a major role. In particular, there has been a growing need for low chirp optical sources, such as externally modulated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. In this paper, the various monolithic integration schemes of multiple quantum well DFB lasers and electro-absorption modulators are reviewed and typical applications of these devices are briefly presented.     

DFB laser with attached external intensity modulator

A theoretical study is made of the frequency pulling effect exerted on a distributed feedback (DFB) laser by an external amplitude modulator that is directly attached to it. The modulator consists of a piece of waveguide whose loss is modulated by means of an externally applied voltage. The modulator affects the laser due to residual reflections from its far end which appear as a variable effective reflectivity to the output end of the DFB laser. Modulation affects the magnitude as well as the phase of the effective reflection coefficient presented to the laser due to the coupling of the real and imaginary parts of the effective refractive index of the modulator waveguide. The tuning problem is formulated as an eigenvalue equation for the DFB laser in the presence of an externally attached lossy cavity     

基于直接调制和外调制的高速半导体激光光源

直接调制和外调制的半导体激光光源在现代光纤通信系统中有着重要的应用。首先介绍了应用于10 Gb/s接入网系统的直接调制AlGaInAs多量子阱DFB激光器。由于AlGaInAs量子阱的导带不连续性较大,因此基于该材料的半导体激光器具有良好的温度特性,其特征温度达到了88 K。同时,该直接调制激光器的3 dB小信号调制响应带宽超过15 GHz。随后介绍面向40 Gb/s干线传输系统的高速DFB激光器/EA调制器集成光源。该集成光源采用同一外延层集成方案,并采用Al2O3高速微波热沉进行了管芯级封装,在3 V反向偏压下获得大于13 dB的静态消光比,3 dB小信号调制带宽超过40 GHz。     

Simultaneous suppression of stimulated Brillouin scattering andinterferometric noise in externally modulated lightwave AM-SCM systems

Externally modulated AM-SCM lightwave systems employing optical power amplifiers, small linewidth DFB lasers and long optical feeder lines, face low stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold powers and phase-to-intensity noise conversion by multipath interference through Rayleigh scattering. We show that these problems can be effectively counteracted simultaneously without introducing additional intermodulation distortion, both by single tone phase modulation and by dithering of the laser's optical frequency     

Rayleigh backscatter effects on 1550-nm CATV distribution systemsemploying optical amplifiers

We analyzed the applicability of externally modulated 1550-nm laser transmitters for trunking and distribution of AM CATV channels using power and in-line EDFA's. The distribution of multiple AM CATV channels over long fiber spans is degraded by the presence of Rayleigh backscatter-induced low-frequency interferometric noise. When the laser source is modulated externally, the low-frequency interferometric noise is mixed and translated around the AM carriers. Furthermore, when isolators are not used with the optical amplifiers, the low end of the broadcast channels could be severely degraded due to doubly amplified Rayleigh backscatter. Employing narrow-linewidth semiconductor or Nd:YAG laser sources at the transmitter will lower the tail of the low-frequency interferometric noise level but will increase the translated noise peak level at each AM carrier. Therefore, the standard CNR measurement techniques, which assumes the noise spectrum is flat, may not reveal the correct video picture quality seen at the customer premises. In this analysis, we compared NCTA RF CNR and baseband video SNR results using CCIR recommended unified weighting filter. We determined that for laser linewidth less than 1 MHz and with long fiber spans, baseband video SNR as opposed to RF CNR measurements should be used to characterize the performance of AM-VSB CATV broadcast distribution systems. Finally, an experimental 78-channel AM-VSB CATV distribution system is constructed employing two EDFA's simulating head-end and hub sites and we compared RF CNR and baseband video SNR measurements using a 700-kHz linewidth externally modulated 1550-nm DFB transmitter     

DFB FL Sensor Cross-Coupling Reduction

The effect of weak external reflections on distributed feedback (DFB) fiber laser (FL) sensor frequency noise has been studied. For multiplexed DFB FL arrays, it was demonstrated that out-of-band reflections from DFB FL raise the noise level of adjacent lasers by up to 50 dB. It was further demonstrated that by incorporating a complex phase- and amplitude-apodized FL grating design with high sidelobe suppression, cross coupling due to out-of-band reflections can be reduced to negligible levels, and Rayleigh backscatter limited noise performance can be achieved. Practical limitations to acoustic sensitivity of DFB FL sensors due to increased laser frequency noise are discussed, and ways to reduce DFB FL sensitivity to external reflections are proposed     

Evaluation of 4-Gbit/s optical fiber transmission distance with direct and external modulation

Transmission characteristics for a recently modulated measured distributed-feedbacked (DFB) laser and an externally modulated DFB laser using a Ti:LiNbO/sub 3/, Mach-Zehnder modulator at 4 Gb/s are discussed. The transmission characteristics are estimated by an advanced eye-pattern analysis method. The maximum measured fiber dispersion with a directly modulated laser is 100 to 140 ps/nm when the chirp power penalty is 1 dB. However, for external modulation, there is no power penalty after transmission over a 2220-ps/nm dispersive fiber. This confirms that external modulation has superior transmission characteristics. The modulation scheme for 4-Gb/s systems in terms of these results is discussed.<>     

Design and performance of externally modulated 1.5-μm lasertransmitter in the presence of chromatic dispersion

Key laser and modulator characteristics that impact the use of externally modulated lasers in the presence of chromatic dispersion, excluding effects due to fiber nonlinearities, are reviewed. After a brief consideration of transmission performance with directly modulated 1.5-μm DFB lasers which have limited application of up to 80 km at 2.5 Gb/s, the key design characteristics of externally modulated transmitters are discussed. Experimental results showing the effects of modulator chirp and laser linewidth at a 2.5-Gb/s transmission rate are presented. It is found that lasers with CW linewidth under 100 MHz have less than 2-dB dispersion penalty for 600 km of non-dispersion-shifted fiber. Lower dispersion penalties can be realized if the modulator chirp is tuned so as to narrow the transmitted pulses. Excellent modulator stability is demonstrated for 60 days of error- and degradation-free 2.5-Gb/s operation     

The symmetry of the amplified spontaneous emission spectrum incomplex-coupled DFB lasers

We present relations between facet reflections and coupling coefficient for the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum of a complex-coupled, an index-coupled, and a gain-coupled distributed feedback (DFB) laser to have a mirror image with respect to the Bragg wavelength. We show that the ASE spectrum of a complex-coupled DFB laser cannot be symmetric in general with respect to the Bragg wavelength. The index-coupled and gain-coupled DFB lasers can have symmetric ASE spectrum for some values of the phase of the facet reflection coefficient that are determined     

Effects of phase-to-intensity noise conversion by multiplereflections on gigabit-per-second DFB laser transmission systems

Large power penalties and bit-error-rate floors have been observed in some Gb/s systems using distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, which could be attributed to interferometric conversion of laser phase noise to intensity noise by multiple reflections at connectors and splices. The authors calculated the power spectral density of the interferometric noise and its impact on system performance as a function of both the magnitude and number of reflections, and they compare the theoretical predictions with experimental results. Their studies indicate that connectors and splices with return losses of more than about 25 dB are required for the reliable operation of Gb/s fiber transmission systems, even if optical isolators are used     

Investigation on the spectral characteristics of DFB lasers withdifferent grating configurations made by electron-beam lithography

The single-mode stability for distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers with various electron-beam-written grating configurations has been investigated theoretically and experimentally, for both as-cleaved and AR-coated lasers. Other laser properties interesting for coherent and multichannel communications systems, such as linewidth and tunability, have also briefly been investigated. Lasers with more sophisticated grating structures, such as an optimized multiple phase-shifted or a corrugation-pitch-modulated grating, did not exhibit performance significantly superior to that of λ/4-shifted DFB lasers with an appropriate coupling coefficient. Antireflection (AR)-coating of the end facets proved indispensable for obtaining a high yield for lasers with single-mode operation at high output power and for reducing the large chip-to-chip variation seen for the as-cleaved lasers. A theoretical investigation of the effect of end reflections on the stopband and of the problem of determining the coupling coefficient was also made     

Significant performance advantage of electroabsorption modulatorintegrated distributed feedback laser (EML) transmitter in transportingmulticarrier QAM signals

Data are presented that show that, for transporting quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) radiofrequency (RF) subcarriers in suboctave frequency range, electroabsorption modulator integrated distributed feedback lasers (EMLs) can he modulated with significantly higher (2.5 times) modulation index without any in-band signal distortion as compared to the directly or externally modulated (using LiNbO₃ MZ modulator) distributed feedback (DFB) laser transmitters in the 1.55-μm band. This occurs when the selection of frequency range and biasing the modulator section of an EML is such that the third-order intermodulation distortion is suppressed and the second-order distortion is outside the in-band frequency range. We have used an equivalent of 64- and 256-QAM 40 carriers in 550-800 MHz with the test carrier modulated with 5.063 M symbols per second. For a given bit error rate (BER), the receiver sensitivity was as much as 4 dB (optical) higher with an EML-based transmitter compared to all other transmitters. The results are presented for QAM signals but they are equally applicable for other formats of digital modulation of RF carriers, such as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) in suboctave frequency range     

Analysis of distributed feedback lasers using optical low-coherencereflectometry

The analysis of distributed feedback (DFB) lasers by optical low-coherence reflectometry (OLCR) shows the appearance of additional more or less periodic minima in the reflectogram. These do not reflect local minima of the reflectance, but are rather due to multipath interference effects caused by spectral filtering of the white light source by the laser under test. It is shown that the coupling coefficient of the laser can be determined from the period of these minima     

Distributed feedback lasers in chiral media

The combined effects of chirality and gain (or loss) on wave propagation and coupling in periodic structures is investigated here. The focus is on distributed feedback (DFB) lasers in a transversely unbounded periodic slab with spatially modulated electromagnetic parameters. The analysis uses a coupled-mode approach employing a canonical physical model of chiral materials to predict the effects of modulated chirality admittance on DFB lasers. Results for DFB laser behavior in chiral media are compared and contrasted to that in achiral media. It is found that, under certain circumstances, the electric and magnetic field coupling, which is characteristic of chiral materials, results in a lower threshold gain for DFB lasers in media with a given index of refraction and characteristic impedance. It is also found that chiral index-coupled or gain-coupled DFB lasers exhibit the same spectral mode properties as achiral DFB lasers     

Impact of Reflection Induced Noise on AM-VSB CATV Lightwave Systems

1 Introduction The lightwave CATV systems recently can provide the extremely high-fidelity transmission required by the AM-VSB video format. These systems can also provide the satisfactory performance of CNR, CSO and CTB. Such performance has been realize…     

Impact of Reflection Induced Noise on AM-VSB CATV Lightwave Systems

The effect of reflection on the performance of AM-VSB CATV lightwave systems is analyzed. Usually, there are three kinds of reflection existing in the AM-VSB CATV lightwave systems: multipath interference (MPI), double Rayleigh backscattering (DRB) and external optical feedback. The MPI and external optical feedback can be neglected owing to using the FC/APC connectors and isolated DFB lasers in the system link. It is shown theoretically and experimentally that the DRB is the limitation of the noise induced by reflection.     

利用光自注入改善DFB激光器的频率响应

介绍了一种简单有效的自注入方法,通过该方法对直接调制的分布反馈半导体激光器进行光自注入,可以得到非常平坦的频率响应曲线.实验中使用一个环形器和一个1×2耦合器来实现光自注入.实验结果表明,在不同的偏置电流下,适当改变自注入光的偏振状态,频率响应曲线的张弛振荡峰可以得到很好地抑制.     

Spice simulation of laser diode modules

For simulating laser diode modules, a subcircuit has been implemented in the SPICE network simulation program. In addition to the properties of the laser chip and electrical package parasitics, incoherent optical reflections from the end of the fibre pigtail are included. Numerical results are compared to measurements on DFB and FP lasers.     

FM response of InGaAsP buried heterostructure distributed feedbacklasers and their applications in incoherent FSK systems

Measurements are reported of the frequency modulation (FM) response of InGaAsP buried heterostructure distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and the system performance of a 1.7-Gb/s and 622-Mb/s incoherent frequency-shift-keyingn (FSK) system using these lasers. The measured lasers include 1.55-μm conventional DFB lasers and quarter-wave shifted DFB lasers. The thermal dips in the FM response of quarter-wave shifted DFB lasers usually occur at the lower frequencies, compared with that of conventional (250-μm-long) DFB lasers. A receiver sensitivity of -32.5 dBm (-39.5 dBm) for a 1.7-GB/s (622-Mb/s) incoherent frequency-shift-keying (FSK) system was achieved using a quarter-wave shifted DFB laser