Abstract
In this paper, optical bistability characteristics are demonstrated experimentally based on a dual-mode laser system comprising a multi-mode Fabry-Pérot laser diode (MMFP-LD) and a built-in feedback cavity formed by a fiber facet. The results show that two lasing modes with frequency separation of ∼0.58 THz and comparable peak powers can be achieved by judicious adjustment of the bias current and the operating temperature of the laser chip, which has a peak fluctuation of less than ∼1 dBm over a measurement period of one hour. A combination of appropriate external injection power and wavelength detuning can result in remarkable optical bistability in two oscillation modes, in which the resulting contrast ratio between the unlocked and locked states can be up to 30 dB, and the corresponding hysteresis loop width can be changed by controlling the side-mode injection power and the wavelength detuning.
Highlights
Optical bistability characteristics are demonstrated experimentally based on a dual-mode laser system comprising a multi-mode Fabry-Perot laser diode (MMFP-LD) and a built-in feedback cavity formed by a fiber facet
The MMFP-LDs associated with external cavity feedback and incorporating fiber Bragg gratings and tunable filters were often chosen for selection of special feedback wavelengths that are fed back into the active region to produce dual-mode laser oscillation in the output spectrum
Single mode output is achieved by adjusting the bias current and operating temperature, such that this lasing system is generally known as the single-mode Fabry-Perot laser diode (SMFP-LD), and it has already been applied to various optical functions, including wavelength conversion,[29] logic gates,[30] flip-flops[31] and switching[32] because of its prominent properties, including self-locking ability, a wide tunable range, the high side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR), and its compact configuration
Summary
Some of the characteristics of the resulting dual-mode lasing spectrum are similar to those of the single mode operation case of the SMFP-LD. To avoid confusion between the concepts of the single-mode and dual-mode lasers, the dual-mode Fabry-Perot laser diode (DMFP-LD) is defined for two-mode oscillation in the MMFP-LD using a built-in external cavity for this study. Previous research indicates that the optical bistability induced by the side-mode injected power should prove to be a very significant phenomenon for dual-mode lasing systems, which have been used directly in optical memory and flip-flop technologies. We will focus on observation and discussion of the optical bistability hysteresis characteristics in this study, where, when both the externally injected power and the wavelength detuning, defined as the difference between the injected wavelength and the adjacent side mode peak, are changed, the device exhibits significant optical bistability hysteresis, in which the loop width is strongly dependent on the input power and the corresponding wavelength detuning. On the basis of this investigation, we believe that potential applications such as optical memory, optical wavelength conversion, and optical switching using optical bistability based on the proposed DMFP-LD system can be explored and demonstrated
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