A low-cost WDM source with an ASE injected Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser

TLDR

The authors propose and demonstrate a low‑cost WDM source based on an uncooled Fabry‑Perot semiconductor laser diode with externally injected ASE, and outline a cost‑effective passive optical network architecture using this source. The F‑P SLD’s output wavelength is locked to a narrow‑band amplified spontaneous emission source, enabling wavelength‑division multiplexing without cooling or isolation. The wavelength‑locked F‑P SLD achieves side‑mode suppression exceeding 29 dB and extinction ratio above 13 dB, allowing error‑free 155‑Mb/s data transmission over 120 km of nondispersion‑shifted fiber.

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a novel wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) source employing an uncooled and unisolated Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser diode (F-P SLD). The output wavelength of F-P SLD is locked to the externally injected narrow-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The measured side-mode suppression ratio of the wavelength-locked F-P SLD is larger than 29 dB, when the extinction ratio of the directly modulated light output is above 13 dB. We achieved error-free transmission of 155-Mb/s data over 120 km of nondispersion-shifted fiber. We also propose a cost-effective WDM passive optical network architecture based on the proposed light sources.