High-frequency broad-band signal generation using a semiconductor laser with a chaotic optical injection

Chaotic signals with a flat power spectrum over 20 GHz have been generated using two commercially available semiconductor lasers coupled in a unidirectional master-slave scheme. The master laser has an external optical feedback that induces optical chaos in the laser output. A part of the chaotic li...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of quantum electronics 2003-11, Vol.39 (11), p.1462-1467
Main Authors: Uchida, A., Heil, T., Yun Liu, Davis, P., Aida, T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chaos
Chaos theory
Frequency
Laser feedback
Lasers
Light (visible radiation)
Master-slave
Mathematical analysis
Optical coupling
Optical feedback
Oscillations
Power generation
Power lasers
Relaxation oscillations
Semiconductor lasers
Signal generation
Signal generators
Studies
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Summary:Chaotic signals with a flat power spectrum over 20 GHz have been generated using two commercially available semiconductor lasers coupled in a unidirectional master-slave scheme. The master laser has an external optical feedback that induces optical chaos in the laser output. A part of the chaotic light output from the master laser is injected into the slave laser. We experimentally demonstrated the generation of broad-band signals up to 22 GHz using lasers whose relaxation oscillation frequency in the free-running state is only around 6.4 GHz. We also show that the experimental results can be well reproduced by numerical simulations using two coupled rate equations. The numerical investigation shows that the high-frequency broad-band signal generation is owing to two key effects: high-frequency oscillations as a result of beating between the master and slave laser lights, and spectrum flattening due to the injection of the chaotic signal. The flatness, stability, and tunability of the power spectra demonstrated in our experiments suggests that the proposed system can be potentially useful for generation of high-frequency broad-band random signals.
ISSN:0018-9197
1558-1713
DOI:10.1109/JQE.2003.818281