Homodyne optical phase locking of resonant cavity coupled semiconductor lasers

Two confocal Fabry-Perot cavity coupled semiconductor laser diodes (CFP-LDs) have been constructed for optical phase-locking experiments. Their FM noise suppression characteristics were calculated and compared with measurements of FM noise using an optical resonator as the optical frequency discriminator (FM noise suppression ratio 39 dB). Spectral linewidth was measured and evaluated, and frequency drift of the heterodyne signal in the time domain (20 kHz/s), was also measured. A simple linearized model of the optical feedback system was used for the calculations. Using two CFP-LDs, homodyne optical phase-locking experiments were performed. The performance of the optical phase-locked loop (OPLL) was evaluated by measuring and calculating the phase error variance. The calculation took into account the actual power spectral density of FM noise of the lasers employed in the OPLL. The phase error variance, considering infinite bandwidth, is 2.26*10/sup -2/ rad/sup 2/. Total phase-locked power concentration ratio of the slave laser in the OPLL was 97.7%.>