Semiconductor laser precision gain switching experiment for Gbaud ternary optical signaling

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · IEEE J. Quant. Electron.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/3.29294· OSTI ID:5759933

O'Dowd, R F; Byrne, D M

An experiment was carried out to gain switch a 1.3 /mu/m semiconductor laser at gigabit/second rates and with sufficient electrical drive precision to validate a previous theoretical study. The method takes advantage of the relaxation oscillation phenomenon to produce shortened, single, optical pulses by careful control of the electrical bias, drive excursion, and pulse duration. It was demonstrated that two-level and three-level (i.e., ternary) optical data stream generation could be reliably achieved with only two electrical drive levels. The latter was performed by control of the drive pulse duration and is the first demonstration of a three-level PCM system based on two-level gain switching. Furthermore, the pulse shortening which results recommends this technique for optical TDM of multiple laser transmitters. This combination of formats may ultimately allow the 100 Gbit/s target to be achieved.

• Research Organization: Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Univ. College, Dublin 2 (IE)
• OSTI ID: 5759933
• Journal Information: IEEE J. Quant. Electron.; (United States), Vol. 25:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
OPTICAL SYSTEMS
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS
SWITCHING CIRCUITS
DATA ANALYSIS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GAIN
OSCILLATIONS
RELAXATION
THEORETICAL DATA
AMPLIFICATION
DATA
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
INFORMATION
LASERS
NUMERICAL DATA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SOLID STATE LASERS
420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)