Generation of optical picosecond pulses with monolithic colliding‐pulse mode‐locked lasers containing a chirped double‐quantum‐well active region. Issue 2 (2nd February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Prziwarka, Thomas; Klehr, Andreas; Wenzel, Hans; Fricke, Jörg; Bugge, Frank; Erbert, Götz; Weyers, Markus; Knigge, Andrea; Tränkle, Günther
• Is Part Of: IET optoelectronics. Volume 11:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 85
• Publication Date: 2017-02-02
• Subjects: aluminium compounds -- chirp modulation -- gallium arsenide -- III‐V semiconductors -- indium compounds -- laser mode locking -- optical correlation -- quantum well lasers; Inx Ga1−x Asy P1−y double‐quantum‐well active regions -- optical picosecond pulse generation -- chirped double‐quantum‐well active region -- monolithic passively colliding‐pulse mode‐locked lasers -- AlGaAs‐based devices -- longitudinal lasing modes -- full width at half maximum -- autocorrelation function -- size 6 mm -- wavelength 860 nm to 880 nm -- time 1.9 ps -- Inx Ga1−x Asy P1−y -- AlGaAs; Optoelectronics -- Periodicals; 621.36
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-opt.2016.0070
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8768

Abstract

Abstract : In this study, the authors present experimental results on 6 mm long monolithic passively colliding‐pulse mode‐locked (CPM) lasers. The AlGaAs‐based devices with In x Ga1− x As y P1− y double‐quantum‐well (DQW) active regions emit between 860 and 880 nm. To optimise the laser performance and to shorten the pulses the optical gain is spectrally broadened to increase the number of longitudinal lasing modes by using a chirped DQW structure where the In‐content of the QWs differs by Δ x = 0.08. Lasers having the chirped DQW with lasers having a conventional, unchirped DQW active region are compared. The mode locking operation is investigated in dependence on gain current, absorber voltage and absorber length. According to the experimental results, the lasers with the chirped DQW exhibit an overall better performance and generate shorter pulses with higher average optical output powers over a wider range of parameters. For an optimum set of parameters, the generated pulses have a full width at half maximum of the autocorrelation function of 1.9 ps at a repetition frequency of 12.9 GHz.