Experimental study of the timing jitter of a passively mode-locked external-cavitysemiconductor laser subject to repetition rate transitions and optical feedback open site


Date: Feb 13, 2015

We experimentally investigate the timing jitter of a passively mode-locked external-cavity diode laser. Variation of the gain current and the absorber reverse bias voltage allows transitions from fundamental mode-locking up to 7th harmonic mode-locking. Hereby, a reduction of the timing jitter as a function of the harmonic mode-locking order is found. Furthermore, application of optical feedback results in an additional reduction of timing jitter for almost the whole investigated operation range. In particular, the reduction increases with harmonic modelocking order. The highest observed reduction of timing jitter amounts to a factor of 10 as compared to the free-running case which corresponds to a repetition-rate linewidth reduction by a factor of 100.

Application: Others