Mode locking in Fabry-Perot semiconductor lasers

Abstract

Passive mode-locking (ML) operation in semiconductor quantum-well (QW) lasers with Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Structural and operational conditions for a semiconductor QW laser to exhibit ``amplitude modulation (AM)'' or ``frequency modulation'' ML operations are investigated by numerical analysis based on a semiclassical laser model. It is shown experimentally that clear AM ML pulses self-build and persist under continuous current injection in ${\mathrm{In}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{x}\mathrm{As}/{\mathrm{In}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{x}{\mathrm{As}}_{y}{\mathrm{P}}_{1\ensuremath{-}y}/\mathrm{InP}$-based FP QW lasers with cavity lengths of $300\ensuremath{-}600 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}.$ The observed ML features are explained in terms of the laser model.