Sampled-grating DBR laser-based analog optical transmitters

Abstract

Sampled-grating distributed Bragg grating (SGDBR) laser-based widely tunable optical transmitters are investigated for application in high-performance analog links. More than 45 nm tuning range, 40 dB sidemode suppression ratio, and peak relative intensity noise below -153 dB/Hz is measured. SGDBR lasers integrated with semiconductor optical amplifiers and electroabsorption modulators (EAMs) are characterized with spurious free dynamic range of 125-127 dB/spl middot/Hz <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sup> 5/ over the wavelength tuning range. It is also shown how the modulation response of the EAM is affected by the optical power to limit the performance of the analog transmitter.