A detailed study of the pulse characteristics emitted from a monolithic Quantum Dot (QD) passively Mode-Locked Laser (MLL) has been performed using a state-of-the-art Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) pulse measurement system. While traditionally the time-domain pulse characteristics of semiconductor MLLs have been studied using digital sampling oscilloscope or intensity autocorrelation techniques, the FROG measurements allow for simultaneous characterization of time and frequency, which has been shown to be necessary and sufficient for true determination of mode-locked stability. In this paper, FROG pulse measurements are presented on a two-section QD MLL operating over wide temperature excursions. The FROG measurement allows for extraction of the temporal and spectral intensity and phase profiles from which the Group Delay Dispersion (GDD) can be determined. The magnitude of the GDD is found to decrease from 16.1 to 3.5 ps/nm when the temperature is increased from 20 to 50 oC, mirroring the trend of pulse width reduction at elevated temperature, which has been shown to correlate strongly with reduced unsaturated absorption. The possibility to further optimize pulse generation via intra-cavity dispersion compensation in a novel three-section MLL design is also examined, and shows strong potential toward providing valuable insight into the optimal cavity designs and operating parameters for QD MLLs.

Date Published: 12 September 2014
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9193, Novel Optical Systems Design and Optimization XVII, 919311 (12 September 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2059208

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9193:
Novel Optical Systems Design and Optimization XVII
G. Groot Gregory; Arthur J. Davis, Editor(s)