POWER PENALTY DUE TO TIMING JITTER FOR LASERS MODULATED WITH PREBIAS

For lasers modulated with a pseudorandom bit stream without prebias, t he delay between the optical pulse and the current pulse depends on th e number of ''0''s preceding the current pulse (''1''). Since 1's and 0's occur randomly in a pseudorandom bit stream and the decision circu it is designed to start sampling at a given time, this effect results in a timing jitter. The jitter induced noise and the associated power penalty are calculated. The results suggest that the ratio of the modu lation current to the threshold current of the laser should be >25 to keep the power penalty below 1 dB at high data rates. Low threshold la sers operating without prebias are important for laser array based tra nsmitters. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.