DWDM channel spacing tunable optical TDM carrier from a mode-locked weak-resonant-cavity Fabry-Perot laser diode...

A novel optical TDM pulsed carrier with tunable mode spacing matching the ITU-T defined DWDM channels is demonstrated, which is generated from an optically injection-mode-locked weak-resonant-cavity Fabry-Perot laser diode (FPLD) with 10%-end-facet reflectivity. The FPLD exhibits relatively weak cavity modes and a gain spectral linewidth covering >33.5 nm. The least common multiple of the mode spacing determined by both the weak-resonant-cavity FPLD and the fiber-ring cavity can be tunable by adjusting length of the fiber ring cavity or the FPLD temperature to approach the desired 200GHz DWDM channel spacing of 1.6 nm. At a specific fiber-ring cavity length, such a least-common- multiple selection rule results in 12 lasing modes between 1532 and 1545 nm naturally and a mode-locking pulsewidth of 19 ps broadened by group velocity dispersion among different modes. With an additional intracavity bandpass filter, the operating wavelength can further extend from 1520 to 1553.5 nm. After channel filtering, each selected longitudinal mode gives rise to a shortened pulsewidth of 12 ps due to the reduced group velocity dispersion. By linear dispersion compensating with a 55-m long dispersion compensation fiber (DCF), the pulsewidth can be further compressed to 8 ps with its corresponding peak-to-peak chirp reducing from 9.7 to 4.3 GHz.