Mode-Locking in a Semiconductor Fiber Laser Using Cross-Absorption Modulation in an Electroabsorption Modulator and Application to All-Optical Clock Recovery

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of cross-absorption modulation in an electroabsorption modulator to actively mode-lock a semiconductor fiber laser at 10 GHz. The laser cavity also comprises a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating to obtain wavelength tunable operation based on the dispersion tuning approach. The laser exhibits uniform output pulse characteristics throughout the tuning range. We also investigate the impact of using different types of optical pump signals on the output pulses. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the mode-locked laser for all-optical clock recovery.