18 GHz all-optical frequency locking and clock recovery using a self-pulsating two-section DFB-laser

The suitability of self-pulsating multi-section DFB lasers for high speed signal processing is shown. First, the locking behaviour to an injected 17.6 GHz signal with sinusoidal modulation is investigated and a locking range of 220 MHz is estimated using a modulated optical power of 7 μW. Second, all-optical clock recovery is demonstrated at 17.6 Gbit/s by replacing the sinusoidal modulation by an optical bit pattern with a peak-power of 150 μW.