학술논문

Recent Advances on InAs/InP Quantum Dash Based Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Amplifiers Operating at 1.55 $\mu$m
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron. Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of. 13(1):111-124 Jan, 2007
Subject
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Photonics and Electrooptics
Semiconductor optical amplifiers
Indium phosphide
Quantum dots
Semiconductor lasers
Stimulated emission
Distributed feedback devices
Laser feedback
Fiber lasers
Laser noise
Quantum well lasers
Clock recovery
mode-locked laser
quantum dots
semiconductor lasers
semiconductor optical amplifiers
Language
ISSN
1077-260X
1558-4542
Abstract
This paper summarizes recent advances on InAs/InP quantum dash (QD) materials for lasers and amplifiers, and QD device performance with particular interest in optical communication. We investigate both InAs/InP dashes in a barrier and dashes in a well (DWELL) heterostructures operating at 1.5 $\mu$m. These two types of QDs can provide high gain and low losses. Continuous-wave (CW) room-temperature lasing operation on ground state of cavity length as short as 200 $\mu$m has been achieved, demonstrating the high modal gain of the active core. A threshold current density as low as 110 A/cm$^{2}$ per QD layer has been obtained for infinite-length DWELL laser. An optimized DWELL structure allows achieving of a $T_{0}$ larger than 100 K for broad-area (BA) lasers, and of 80 K for single-transverse-mode lasers in the temperature range between 25$^{\circ}$C and 85 $^{\circ}$C. Buried ridge stripe (BRS)-type single-mode distributed feedback (DFB) lasers are also demonstrated for the first time, exhibiting a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) as high as 45 dB. Such DFB lasers allow the first floor-free 10-Gb/s direct modulation for back-to-back and transmission over 16-km standard optical fiber. In addition, novel results are given on gain, noise, and four-wave mixing of QD-based semiconductor optical amplifiers. Furthermore, we demonstrate that QD Fabry–Perot (FP) lasers, owing to the small confinement factor and the three-dimensional (3-D) quantification of electronic energy levels, exhibit a beating linewidth as narrow as 15 kHz. Such an extremely narrow linewidth, compared to their QW or bulk counterparts, leads to the excellent phase noise and time-jitter characteristics when QD lasers are actively mode-locked. These advances constitute a new step toward the application of QD lasers and amplifiers to the field of optical fiber communications.