Direct generation of 1.5 /spl mu/m, 2.1 ps pulses at 10 GHz from an actively modelocked fiber laser using a monolithic semiconductor optical amplifier and electroabsorption modulator device

We present a simple and robust ring cavity design that relies on a single monolithically integrated semiconductor optical amplifier and 10 GB/s electroabsorption modulator (EAM) to provide both the gain and modelocking mechanisms for the laser. Small perturbations to the large reverse bias voltage applied to the EAM allow for about 2 ppm tunability of the rep rate of the cavity. About 10 dB of isolation is provided by the directional difference in net saturated gain of the device.