Transient and optoelectronic feedback-sustained pulsation of laser diodes at 1300 nm

We report the observation of self-sustained pulsation and transient self-pulsation in laser diodes at 1300 nm and the effects of optoelectronic feedback on the pulsations. Transient self-pulsation has a lifetime of a few minutes with frequencies up to 7 GHz. The linewidth of self-pulsation is on the order of 0.5 GHz. With optoelectronic feedback, the transient self-pulsation can be sustained and the linewidth significantly reduced to about 20 kHz. The center frequency of feedback-sustained pulsation is dependent on the passband of the bandpass filter in the feedback loop. The feedback sustained pulsation can be frequency modulated for applications in subcarrier multiplexed optical networks such as cable TV distribution and antenna remoting.>