Optical and RF stability transfer in a monolithic coupled-cavity colliding pulse mode-locked quantum dot laser

Area of Science:

• Quantum optics
• Semiconductor lasers
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Passively mode-locked lasers often suffer from timing jitter and frequency drift.
• Quantum dots offer unique optical properties for laser applications.
• Injection locking is a technique to stabilize laser output.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and demonstrate a novel quantum dot laser.
• To reduce timing jitter and frequency drift in a slave laser.
• To generate a stable, high-repetition-rate optical pulse train.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a stable, high-Q master laser for injection locking.
• Employing a passively mode-locked monolithic colliding pulse slave laser.
• Integrating a common saturable absorber for coupling orthogonal cavities.

Main Results:

• Achieved stable 30 GHz optical pulse train generation.
• Demonstrated over 10 dB reduction in RF noise at 20 MHz offset.
• Reduced the 10 dB average optical linewidth by approximately three times.

Conclusions:

• The novel quantum dot laser design effectively reduces timing jitter and frequency drift.
• Injection locking with a master laser stabilizes the slave laser's performance.
• This design offers a promising route for generating high-quality optical pulse trains.