Relative intensity noise measurements of a widely tunablesampled-grating DBR laser

The intensity noise of a sampled-grating distributed Bragg reflector laser with 50-nm tuning range and 45-dB side-mode suppression ratio has been measured. The resonance frequency, damping factor, and modified Schawlow-Townes linewidth are extracted from the noise spectra. At high output power, the relative intensity noise (RIN) of the laser is below the photodiode shot noise limit, which is -160 dB/Hz. The laser has uniform shot noise limited RIN properties along the whole tuning range. The maximum resonance frequency is 5.4 GHz at a bias current of 120 mA and the K factor is 0.58 ns     

Intensity noise of semiconductor laser in presence of arbitrary optical feedback

The relative intensity noise (RIN) Fourier spectrum of a semiconductor laser with arbitrary optical feedback has been derived. The authors calculations show that intensity noise can be highly suppressed at strong feedback, and that the phase of the feedback field plays an important role in the suppression of intensity noise.<>     

Relative intensity noise and linewidth measurements of a widelytunable GCSR laser

The intensity and frequency noise of a grating assisted codirectional coupler with rear sampled grating reflector laser with 40-nm tuning range and 35-dB sidemode suppression ratio (SMSR) have been measured. The linewidth varies from 430 kHz to 4 MHz as a function of tuning. The resonance frequency, intrinsic bandwidth and damping factor for this device were extracted from the relative intensity noise (RIN) measurements. At high bias, the RIN is -150 dB/Hz and the maximum resonance frequency is 4.5 GHz     

Noise characteristics of a single-mode laser diode subject to strong optical feedback

An experimental study has been performed of the relative intensity noise (RIN) of a semiconductor laser in optical feedback regimes I to V. At low bias current, a low RIN is observed with low feedback ratio, the RIN increased in the coherence collapse regime (regime IV) and decreased in regime V. The RIN in regime V is lower than that of the solitary laser. For higher bias current, a higher feedback ratio is needed for the semiconductor laser to transit from regime IV to V. The measurements are found to be in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions.     

Relative intensity noise for laser diodes with arbitrary amounts ofoptical feedback

A unified study of the noise characteristics of semiconductor lasers with optical feedback and short external cavity length is presented. A new set of nonlinear rate equations that can describe a laser diode with any amount of optical feedback is proposed. The relative intensity noise (RIN) is calculated by using a numerical solution of these equations. This paper concentrates mainly on the moderate and strong feedback regimes. The spectral phenomena observed during the transition from the weak feedback to the “coherence collapse” regime and then to the strong feedback regime are studied and explained. The effect of the variation of some of the laser diode parameters on the RIN characteristics is also investigated     

基于腔内光放大器结构的光纤激光器噪声抑制方法

设计了一种将半导体光放大器耦 合于光纤激光器腔内的结构,以抑制光纤激光器的相对强 度噪声。基于半导体光放大器的增益饱和效应,将光纤 激光器在弛豫振荡峰处的相对强度噪声抑制了30 dB。更进 一步地,通过腔内的放大器结构使得放大器内部的光学 强度达到一个稳定态,最终使得激光器的频率噪声没有因 光放大器的加入而产生劣化。     

Chaos control and noise suppression in external-cavitysemiconductor lasers

Feedback-induced chaos and intensity noise enhancement in a laser diode with external optical feedback are studied by computer simulations. The enhancement of relative intensity noise (RIN) that is often observed in experiments is considered as a result of the feedback-induced deterministic chaos and the intensity noise suppression is treated from the viewpoint of chaos control. Especially, the conventional noise suppressing technique known as a high-frequency injection modulation is turned into a problem of stabilizing chaos through parameter modulations. We developed an analytical method which allows to optimize the modulation frequency from the linear stability analysis of the dynamical model that describes the laser diode with external feedback. The robustness of the modulation with respect to the modulation frequency and depth is verified and the results suggest the feasibility of applying our method to actual noise suppression. The RIN in the low-frequency region (up to 100 MHz) is shown to be reduced to the solitary laser level when the feedback-induced chaos is effectively controlled with the optimized modulation frequency     

Effect of pump laser noise on an erbium-doped fiber-amplified signal

The effect of pump laser noise on erbium-doped fiber-amplifier (EDFA) output was investigated using an optically pumped semiconductor laser (OPSL) as a high-power pump. Measurements included pump and amplified signal relative intensity noise (RIN) in frequency and time domains as well as gain spectral measurements and 10-Gb/s Q-factor tests, all under several levels of backreflection to the pump laser. Time-domain low-frequency noise (<50 kHz) was observed to increase with increasing backreflection. With 150-mW OPSL output power and -28 dB backreflection, temporal RIN was /spl sim/3.4% for the pump and /spl sim/2.2% for the amplified signal. At a maximum pump power of 450 mW, RIN was 1.4% and 1.1%, respectively. The measured Q-factor of 12.5 dB at 10 Gb/s showed less than 0.5-dB penalty compared to a back-to-back system measurement of 13 dB. Power budget and operating specifications of an OPSL-pumped multicoil EDFA were also evaluated.     

Relative intensity noise characteristics of frequency stabilised grating-coupled modelocked semiconductor laser

Relative intensity noise (RIN) characteristics of a frequency stabilised grating-coupled modelocked semiconductor laser (MSL) have been experimentally investigated. Reported is the first measurement, to the authors' knowledge, of general RIN characteristics as well as RIN reduction in the frequency stabilised MSL system showing the relationship between RIN and mode coherency in the MSL     

激光器强度噪声对光纤水听器相位载波解调的影响

相位载波(PGC)调制解调技术作为光纤水听器主要的检测技术之一,已经应用于许多光纤水听器阵列系统之中,该方案对光源提出了窄线宽、可调谐、低噪声等较高的要求。实验中发现,光源弛豫噪声对系统噪声性能产生了较大的影响。在理论分析光源弛豫噪声对相位载波解调影响的基础上,提出了通过调节抽运功率,控制弛豫振荡中心频率为相位载波调制频率的半倍频的奇数倍,来降低系统解调噪声的方法,实验验证了理论结果,解调噪声由最高的—86.7 dB减小到—106 dB。实验进一步采用了光电负反馈方法来抑制弛豫噪声,在弛豫振荡峰处抑制噪声约25 dB,得到了约—100 dB的较为平坦的激光器噪声谱级,使得相位载波解调噪声达到—110 dB,基本满足了光纤水听器系统的要求。     

Polarization-resolved relative intensity noise measurements of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser subjected to strong optical feedback

We experimentally measure the polarization-resolved relative intensity noise (RIN) in two orthogonal polarization states of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) subjected to strong optical feedback. A comparison is made with the RIN of solitary VCSEL. Optical feedback is shown to enhance the RIN in one polarization direction while suppressing the RIN in the orthogonal polarization. The RIN in the dominant polarization mode exhibits complementary behavior to the RIN in the suppressed polarization mode.     

Relative intensity noise reduction in InGaAs/InP multiple quantum well lasers with low nonlinear damping

The authors demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the relative intensity noise (RIN) of laser diodes can be dramatically reduced by decreasing nonlinear damping in the laser. Four types of InGaAs/InP multiple quantum well (MQW) lasers with different well widths, barrier widths, and numbers of wells were fabricated. By comparing these four types of devices, it is shown that MQW lasers with wider wells, narrower barriers, and larger numbers of wells have smaller nonlinear damping and lower RIN.<>     

An integrated equivalent circuit model for relative intensity noise and frequency noise spectrum of a multimode semiconductor laser

Relative intensity noise (RIN) and the frequency/phase noise spectrum (FNS) equivalent circuit of a multimode semiconductor laser diode are derived from multimode rate equations with the inclusion of noise Langevin sources. FNS is an important parameter in optical communication systems, and its circuit model is presented, for the first time, in this paper. Both circuit models for RIN and FNS are integrated in one circuit. RIN and FNS are calculated as functions of frequency, output power, and mode number. It is shown that the RIN of the main mode is increased in the multimode lasers with higher mode numbers. Furthermore, we show that RIN and FNS are enhanced for higher output power. The dependency of a multimode laser diode linewidth on output power is also analyzed using the model.     

Experimental Investigation and Analytical Modeling of Excess Intensity Noise in Semiconductor Class-A Lasers

Excess intensity noise in a low-noise single-frequency class-A VECSEL is experimentally investigated over the frequency range 10 kHz-18 GHz. An analytical model is derived, based on multimode Langevin equations, to describe the observed laser excess noise over the whole bandwidth. From 50 MHz to 18 GHz, class-A operation leads to a shot noise limited relative intensity noise (RIN), namely -155 dB/Hz for 1-mA detected photocurrent, except at harmonics of the cavity free spectral range (FSR). At these frequencies, the excess noise is shown to be due to the amplified spontaneous emission contained in the nonlasing side modes. The measured levels of excess noise correspond to side mode suppression ratios (SMSRs) ranging from 70 to 90 dB, in agreement with the model. At low frequencies, 10 kHz-50 MHz, the observed excess noise spectrum has the expected Lorentzian shape. Its bandwidth increases with the pumping rate to an upper limit given by the cavity photon lifetime. Below this cutoff frequency, we show that the pump RIN is the dominant source of noise, while it is filtered by the laser dynamics above. Finally, our model permits to design a semiconductor class-A laser with an intensity noise limited to the shot noise level over the whole 10 kHz-18 GHz bandwidth.     

Low-noise narrow-linewidth fiber laser at 1550 nm (June 2003)

We present a compact integrated fiber laser with more than 200 mW of output power. It combines polarized fiber output with very narrow linewidth of less than 2 kHz. The coherence length of the laser is measured to be longer than 5 km. The laser features high mode stability of less than /spl plusmn/10 MHz over hours. The relative intensity noise (RIN) spectrum is dominated by a peak at the relaxation oscillation frequency and is shot-noise limited otherwise. The RIN peak at 1 MHz is reduced to /spl sim/-130 dB/Hz by integrating a negative feedback circuit. In addition to thermal wavelength tuning, the laser frequency can be modulated at a bandwidth of up to 10 kHz via the piezoelectric effect.     

Characterizing relative intensity noise in InGaAsP-InP triangular ring lasers

This paper discusses relative intensity noise (RIN) characterization of triangular ring lasers, fabricated through a self-aligned dry etching process in InGaAsP-InP. Unusual low frequency noise enhancement was observed in each of the output beams, that is strongly dependent on the mirror backscattering strength. We explain the physical origin of the unusual RIN results as a partition noise effect between the two output beams of the ring laser, which can be best interpreted as superposition of two incoherent spatially bidirectional modes, generated by incoherent spontaneous emission photons traveling in clockwise and counterclockwise directions. This effect is unique to the ring laser geometry, and reported here for the first time. General noise predictions of our analysis are consistent with experimental measurements. This partition noise enhancement is expected to be present in the entire class of bidirectional semiconductor ring lasers, affecting the noise performance of not only the triangular ring laser, but also circular and square geometries, and possibly microdisk type lasers, in integrated photonic circuit applications.     

The dynamic properties and stability analysis for vertical-cavitysurface-emitting lasers

In this paper, a phenomenal analysis on the wavelength dependence of the gain temperature coefficient is presented. Based on this model, the relation between the dynamic properties and the lasing wavelength within the gain regime are investigated using the rate equations, including the wavelength dependence of both the differential gain and linewidth enhancement factor. Our calculation shows that when the lasing mode occurs in the negative damping rate regime, the relative intensity noise (RIN) is more than 43 dB higher, and the linewidth is broadened out more than 30 dB, which indicates laser being in a chaotic state. The stability of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with distant external optical feedback is analyzed numerically. The results for different cavity designs are compared. The effects of the nonlinear gain coefficient on RIN and spectral linewidth of the VCSEL's with external optical feedback is investigated     

Noise analysis of injection-locked semiconductor injection lasers

The noise of injection-locked semiconductor lasers is analyzed by rate equations including the spontaneous emission noise. The side mode suppression and the relative intensity noise (RIN) of the locked laser (slave laser) are given for different wavelengths detuning between the master and slave laser and for different linewidth enhancement factors α. For large α, locking is difficult to achieve, whereas extremely low noise may be obtained for injection-locked lasers with a low linewidth enhancement factor.     

外部光反馈半导体激光器的结构优化研究

通过构建外部光反馈半导体激光器的理论模型,并结合激光器速率方程和噪声理论,讨论并优化了增益芯片和光纤光栅外腔各参数在不同电流下对器件频率噪声和相对强度噪声的影响.模拟结果表明:通过改变电流并对有源区尺寸、光纤光栅结构和耦合效率等参数的调整,在理论上可以将器件的频率噪声降低5×108 Hz左右,相对强度噪声降低8 dB/Hz左右.该研究将为低噪声、窄线宽外部光反馈激光器的实验研究提供理论指导,同时也对其他结构的外腔激光器噪声特性的研究有着借鉴意义.     

Analysis of relative intensity noise in tapered grating QWS-DFB laser diodes by using three rate equations model

The relative intensity noise (RIN) of quarter wavelength shift distributed feedback (QWS-DFB) laser diodes is analyzed theoretically for tapered grating structures. Tapered grating structures can reduce spatial hole burning (SHB) effect in QWS-DFB lasers. Two types of tapered, concave and convex grating are introduced. According to the results concave tapered grating structures have lower flatness parameter relative to convex and uniform grating. Numerical analysis shows that concave tapered grating structures, in spite of lower SHB effect, have larger RIN for some values of grating parameters. In concave and convex structures, with increasing the concavity and convexity of grating, mean value of RIN in the frequency range 5–500 MHz reduces. RIN spectrum calculations have been done by three rate equations model and transfer matrix method.