EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DUAL-WAVELENGTH INJECTION-LOCKING OFA FABRY-PEROT LASER-DIODE

Injection-locking of a Fabry-Perot laser diode by two different wavele ngths has potential application for ah-optical wavelength conversion i n wavelength-division-multiplexed communication systems. We describe n ew measurements of the dynamic response and wavelength locking range o btainable by dual-wavelength injection-locking of a commercial Fabry-P erot laser diode. We show that a digitally modulated input signal at o ne wavelength can modulate, with over IO dB extinction ratio, an arbit rarily selectable mode within the 38 nm gain bandwidth of the Fabry-Pe rot laser used in the experiment. We measure, for the first time, the impulse response of the all-optical modulation and observe a full-widt h half-maximum impulse response of 48 ps. Bit error rate measurements showed that the wavelength conversion had a negative power penalty (i. e., bit error rate improvement) when the input signal was chirped. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.