Widely wavelength tunable optical clock generation by use of injection locked DBR lasers with vernier gratings

We propose a versatile optical clock generation method with 10 nm wavelength tunability using widely tunable DBR lasers. Injection locking was experimentally demonstrated for 30 GHz sinusoidal pulses at 1545 and 1560 nm as well.

1. Introduction

Optical clock generation devices are indispensable to realize future high data rate all-optical communication systems. As a key element for this application, mode-locked laser diodes (MLLDs) [1, 2] and self-pulsating DFB (SP-DFB) lasers [3, 4] are very promising candidates. Ultra-high speed potential has been demonstrated at repetition frequencies of 160 GHz range using these devices [2, 4].