A low-cost WDM source with an ASE injected Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser

We propose and demonstrate a novel wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) source employing an uncooled and unisolated Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser diode (F-P SLD). The output wavelength of F-P SLD is locked to the externally injected narrow-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The measured side-mode suppression ratio of the wavelength-locked F-P SLD is larger than 29 dB, when the extinction ratio of the directly modulated light output is above 13 dB. We achieved error-free transmission of 155-Mb/s data over 120 km of nondispersion-shifted fiber. We also propose a cost-effective WDM passive optical network architecture based on the proposed light sources.