3.4 ps wide compressed optical pulses fromelectrically gain-switched vertical cavity surfaceemitting laser

The authors show that by using singlemode fibre it is possible to achieve significant compression in optical pulses generated by electrical gain-switching in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). A pulse width of 3.4 ps was achieved, which is, to the authors' best knowledge, the lowest obtained by electrical gain switching in VCSELs. The measured timing jitter of the compressed pulses is 6.6 ps and is almost identical to the timing jitter before compression.