Abstract

Pulsed light sources are of interest for a range of applications, as well as from a dynamical systems perspective. For applications, such as optical data communication, it is important that the pulse trains that are produced are highly regular. This is a hurdle when using passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers, because pulse trains from these devices tend to have a considerable timing jitter. This is due to the relatively high level of spontaneous emission noise and the absence of an external reference clock. However, it has been shown that, under certain conditions, optical self-feedback may be used to reduce timing jitter and thus improve the temporal stability of the resulting pulse train [1]. For single-mode lasers subject to optical feedback it is known that the phase difference accumulated in the feedback loop crucially influences the dynamics of the laser. Here we investigate the influence of the feedback phase on the dynamics of a passively mode-locked semiconductor laser, with the aim of identifying feedback regimes resulting in improved temporal stability.

© 2017 IEEE