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Construction and Characterization of External Cavity Diode Lasers for Atomic Physics
Published on: April 24, 2014
10-Gb/s direct modulation of polymer-based tunable external cavity lasers
Byung-Seok Choi1, Su Hwan Oh, Ki Soo Kim
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, South Korea.
Optics Express
|October 6, 2012
Summary
A novel tunable external cavity laser (ECL) using a polymer Bragg reflector and superluminescent diode (SLD) achieves 10 Gb/s modulation. This laser transmits data over 20 km of fiber with a low power penalty.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and Optical Communications
- Semiconductor Device Engineering
- Materials Science for Optoelectronics
Background:
- External cavity lasers (ECLs) are crucial for tunable wavelength applications.
- Superluminescent diodes (SLDs) offer broad spectral output suitable for modulation.
- Polymer Bragg reflectors provide a cost-effective and tunable optical filtering mechanism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a directly modulated tunable external cavity laser (ECL) for high-speed optical communication.
- To integrate a polymer Bragg reflector with a high-speed superluminescent diode (SLD) for laser fabrication.
- To evaluate the performance of the fabricated ECL in terms of tuning range, output power, and data transmission capabilities.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of an external cavity laser (ECL) utilizing a polymer Bragg reflector and a high-speed superluminescent diode (SLD).
- Characterization of the ECL's tuning range and output power at a drive current of 100 mA.
- Direct modulation of the ECL at 10 Gb/s and transmission of the signal over 20 km of standard single-mode fiber.
- Measurement of the power penalty at a bit-error rate (BER) of 10(-10).
Main Results:
- The fabricated tunable external cavity laser (ECL) demonstrated a tuning range exceeding 11 nm.
- The ECL achieved an output power of 2.6 mW at a drive current of 100 mA.
- Successful 10 Gb/s data transmission over 20 km of standard single-mode fiber with a power penalty less than 2.8 dB at a BER of 10(-10).
Conclusions:
- The developed polymer Bragg reflector-based tunable external cavity laser (ECL) is suitable for high-speed optical communication systems.
- Direct modulation of the ECL at 10 Gb/s is feasible, showing promising performance for fiber optic transmission.
- The integration of polymer Bragg reflectors with superluminescent diodes (SLDs) presents a viable approach for cost-effective tunable laser sources.
