High-speed fibre optic links using 780 nm compact disc lasers

High-speed fibre optic data links with transmission speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s and distances of up to 2 km for 50 and 62.5 mu m core multimode fibres were demonstrated using low cost compact disc (CD) lasers and Si detectors operating at 780 nm. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the highest data rate yet demonstrated for CD lasers operating at a wavelength of 780 nm. This suggests that a low cost CD laser with multimode fibre and its simple receptacle package design may be more usable for the short-range nature of gigabit fibre optic link applications than has previously been considered to be practical.<>