Broadband light source using fabry perot laser diodes

• US 7,936,994 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2004
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Original Assignee: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Inventors: Park, Keun-Youl, Lee, Chang-Hee, Min, Hyun-Sik, Choi, Ki-Man, Baik, Jin-serk
• Primary Examiner(s): Curs; Nathan M
• Application Number:
  US11/575,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20080131127A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,323 Days
• Field of Search: 398/90
• US Class Current: 398/90
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/005 Optical components external to the laser cavity, specially adapted therefor, e.g. for homogenisation or merging of the beams or for manipulating laser pulses, e.g. pulse shaping H01S5/026, H01S5/18388 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0064 Anti-reflection components, e.g. optical isolators
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0427 for applying modulation to the laser
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0612 controlled by temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0656 Seeding, i.e. an additional light input is provided for controlling the laser modes, for example by back-reflecting light from an external optical component H01S5/14, H01S5/4062 and H01S5/4006 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/4006 Injection locking
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/4068 with lateral coupling by axially offset or by merging waveguides, e.g. Y-couplers

Abstract

Disclosed is a broadband light source (BLS) necessary to implement wavelength-locked Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes (LDs) applicable to an optical subscriber network The BLS is based on a method using mutual injection of low-cost FP LDs and a method using FP LDs undergoing chirping. A power level of a light emitting diodes (LED), an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), or a super luminescent diode (SLD) used as the conventional BLS is low and its cost is high, such that the conventional BLS is inefficient. However, the present invention can easily implement a low-cost BLS using proposed FP LDs.

Claims

1. A method for generating a broadband light source using Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes (LDs), comprising:

generating the broadband light source by broadening an oscillation line-width of laser oscillation mode generated from at least two FP LDs by mutual injection of the at least two FP LDs.

2. A broadband light source using Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes (LDs), comprising:

a pair of FP LDs for generating multimode light; and

an optical coupler for coupling outputs of the pair of FP LDs,

wherein output ports of the pair of FP LDs are coupled to each other such that photons are injected between the pair of FP LDs.

3. The broadband light source of claim 2, further comprising:

an isolator for receiving an output of the optical coupler, blocking reflected light, and passing transmitted light.

4. The broadband light source of claim 2, wherein the optical coupler is a 2×

2 or 1×

2 optical coupler.

5. The broadband light source of claim 2, wherein a transmission bit rate is controlled by adjusting a distance between the pair of FP LDs.

6. The broadband light source of claim 2, wherein an oscillating wavelength of the pair of FP LDs is controlled by adjusting a bias current or temperature of the pair of FP LDs.

7. The broadband light source of claim 2, wherein the pair of FP LDs are antireflection-coated FP LDs or high-power FP LDs.

8. The broadband light source of claim 2, wherein a bandwidth is defined using a broadband FP laser in which a gain band is broad.

9. A broadband light source using Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes (LDs), comprising:

a first number of FP LDs for generating multimode light; and

an optical coupler for coupling outputs of the first number of FP LDs,

wherein output ports of the first number of FP LDs are coupled to one another such that photons are injected between the first number of FP LDs.

10. The broadband light source of claim 9, further comprising:

an isolator for receiving an output of the optical coupler, blocking reflected light, and passing transmitted light.

11. The broadband light source of claim 9, wherein the optical coupler is one of 1×

2, 2×

2, I×

N, and N×

N optical couplers.

12. The broadband light source of claim 9, wherein a wavelength interval between oscillation modes is controlled by adjusting a distance between the first number of FP LDs.

13. The broadband light source of claim 9, wherein an oscillating wavelength of the first number of FP LDs is controlled by adjusting a bias current or temperature of the first number of FP LDs.

14. The broadband light source of claim 9, wherein the first number of FP LDs are antireflection-coated FP LDs or high-power FP LDs.

15. The broadband light source of claim 9, wherein a bandwidth is defined using a broadband FP laser in which a gain band is broad.

16. The broadband light source of claim 9, wherein a plurality of lasers among the first number of FP LDs are modulated such that a spectrum is increased.

17. An optical transmitter, comprising:

a broadband light source comprising a first number of Fabry-Perot laser diodes (“

FP LDs”

) for generating multimode light;

an optical coupler for coupling outputs of the first number of FP LDs, wherein output ports of the first number of FP LDs are coupled to one another such that photons are injected between the first number of FP LDs;

a first arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) for filtering light into a second number of light components in a plurality of oscillation modes of the broadband light source, where the second number of light components is equal to the number of output ports of the first AWG or the number of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signal channels;

an optical fiber for transmission;

a third number of Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes (LDs) each for outputting light wavelength-locked to a light wavelength injected through the first AWG;

an optical circulator for outputting light from the first AWG; and

a second AWG for demultiplexing a WDM signal into a fourth number of signals.

18. The optical transmitter of claim 17, further comprising:

an optical fiber amplifier or a polarization controller coupled between the broadband light source and the optical circulator.

19. The optical transmitter of claim 17, wherein the third number of FP LDs for outputting light wavelength-locked to the light wavelength injected through the first AWG are antireflection-coated FP LDs or high-power FP LDs.

20. A method for generating an unpolarized broadband light source, comprising:

generating a broadband light source by broadening an oscillation line-width of laser oscillation mode generated from at least two Fabry-Perot laser diodes (“

FP LDs”

) by mutual injection of the at least two FP LDs,

using outputs of two output ports of the broadband light source, or dividing and using an output of one output port of the broadband light source, to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein when the outputs of the two output ports of the broadband light source to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light are used,

the outputs of the two output ports of the broadband light source are controlled by first and second polarization controllers, respectively, such that the outputs are horizontally and vertically polarized light components, and the horizontally and vertically polarized light components are passed to a polarization beam splitter.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein when the outputs of the two output ports of the broadband light source to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light are used,

one of the outputs of the two output ports of the broadband light source is adjusted to be vertical to polarized light of the other output by a wave plate, and polarized light components vertical to each other are passed to a polarization maintaining coupler.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein when the outputs of the two output ports of the broadband light source to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light are used,

polarized light components of the outputs of the two output ports of the broadband light source are adjusted to be vertical to each other by at least one polarization controller, and the polarized light components vertical to each other are passed to a polarization maintaining coupler.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein when the output of the one output port of the broadband light source is divided and used to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light,

the output of the one output port of the broadband light source is separated into two components by a 1×

2 optical coupler, the two components of the optical coupler are adjusted to be horizontally and vertically polarized light components by first and second polarization controllers, and the horizontally and vertically polarized light components are passed to a polarization beam splitter.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein when the output of the one output port of the broadband light source is divided and used to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light,

the output of the one output port of the broadband light source is separated into two components by a 1×

2 optical coupler, one component output from the optical coupler is adjusted to be vertical to polarized light of the other component by a wave plate, and polarized light components vertical to each other are passed to a polarization maintaining coupler.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein when the output of the one output port of the broadband light source is divided and used to generate two polarized broadband light components for multiplexing polarized light,

polarized light components generated from the output of the one output port of the broadband light source are adjusted to be vertical to each other by at least one polarization controller, and the polarized light components vertical to each other are passed to a polarization maintaining coupler.

27. An optical transmitter comprising:

a broadband light source comprising at least two Fabry-Perot laser diodes (“

FP LDs”

) mutually injected into each other, wherein outputs from two output ports of the broadband light source are used to generate two polarized broadband light components to produce an unpolarized light, or one an output from one output port of the broadband light source is divided to generate the two polarized broadband light components to produce the unpolarized light;

a first arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) for filtering light into a first number of light components in a plurality of oscillation modes of the unpolarized broadband light source, where the first number is the number of output ports of the first AWG or the number of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signal channels;

an optical fiber for transmission;

a second number of Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes (LDs) for outputting light wavelength-locked to a light wavelength injected through the first AWG;

an optical circulator for outputting light input through the first AWG; and

a second AWG for demultiplexing a WDM signal into a third number of signals.

28. The optical transmitter of claim 27, further comprising:

an optical fiber amplifier or a polarization controller coupled between the broadband light source and the optical circulator.

29. The optical transmitter of claim 28, wherein the second number of FP LDs for outputting light wavelength-locked to the light wavelength injected through the first AWG are antireflection-coated FP LDs or high-power FP LDs.