Abstract

Several laser transmitters assembled for 44.736-Mb/sec lightwave field experiments exhibited large, unexpected changes in output power. This problem is now identified with laser front-to-back mirror mistracking and its effect on the back-mirror-monitoring scheme used for feedback control of the laser. To correct this problem, an optical-fiber tap was developed to monitor the actual output power for feedback control. This paper describes the output power stability of five GaAlAs laser transmitters operated using this optical tap for feedback control. Results show that tap-controlled transmitters have output-power stability within ±2% (±0.1 dB) over a 1000-h test period, this being an order of magnitude improvement compared with the earlier scheme of control.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Transverse coupling and front-mirror monitoring for feedback control of laser transmitters

F. S. Chen
Appl. Opt. 18(24) 4095-4100 (1979)

Effects of beam displacement and front and back mistracking of junction lasers on lightwave transmitter output stability

F. S. Chen, M. A. Karr, and P. W. Shumate
Appl. Opt. 17(14) 2219-2223 (1978)

Lightwave fiber tap

M. A. Karr, T. C. Rich, and M. DiDomenico
Appl. Opt. 17(14) 2215-2218 (1978)

Optical feedback effects on the performance of Pb₁₋xSnxSe semiconductor lasers

C. N. Harward and J. M. Hoell
Appl. Opt. 18(23) 3978-3983 (1979)

Flexible bandpass filtering using a coherent optical feedback technique

E. Händler and U. Röder
Appl. Opt. 18(16) 2787-2791 (1979)