Effect of gain compression above and below threshold on the chirp characteristics of 1.55 µm distributed feedback laser

Abstract

We have observed and quantified the adiabatic and transient chirp in a directly modulated laser. The wavelength excursion for both chirp terms is well characterized by the phase rate equation model that describes the chirp behavior. In this study, the effect of gain compression and linewidth enhancement factor, below and above threshold, on the chirp characteristics is investigated by simulation. We have observed the trade-off between the two chirp terms i.e., transient part of the chirp is reduced by the strong damping introduced by gain compression, while as the adiabatic part increases with gain compression. We have observed that above threshold the α-factor increases with bias current, which is attributed to the enhancement of gain compression coefficient. It is shown that the higher the maximum gain, the lower the effects of gain compression and lower the α-factor. Finally, the effects of gain compression on the transmission characteristics are investigated.