Quantum dot based photonic devices at 1.3 m: Direct modulation, mode-locking, SOAs and VCSELs

We present results on directly modulated lasers with high-reflectivity coating, mode-locked lasers with a gain and absorber section, and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) with anti-reflection coating, all based on InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) material emitting at 1.3 m. Error free 8 and 10 Gb/s data modulation is presented. 80 GHz passive mode-locking of two-section QD lasers is reported. Hybrid mode-locking was achieved at 40 GHz. The minimum pulse width at 80 GHz was 1.5 ps, with a time-bandwidth product of 1.7. QD SOAs are shown to have a chip gain larger than 26 dB. Modeling of the gain characteristics of these devices predicts 40 dB amplification under ideal biasing and input power. QD-VCSEL with 17 p-modulation doped QD layers placed in 5 field intensity antinodes and fully doped GaAs/AlGaAs DBRs show a peak multimode RT cw output power of 1.8 mW and differential efficiency of 20 %. The maximum -3dB bandwidth is 3 GHz.