L-Band Quantum-dash Self-Injection Locked Multiwavelength Laser Source for Future WDM Access Networks

We propose and demonstrate a compact, cost-effective, multiwavelength laser source employing self-injection locking scheme on InAs/InP quantum-dash (Qdash) laser diode. The device is shown to exhibit Fabry–Perot modes or subcarriers selectivity of 1 to 16 between ∼1600–1610 nm, with corresponding mode power (side mode suppression ratio) variation of ∼10 (∼38) to ∼−2.5 (∼22) dBm (dB), and able to extend beyond 1610 nm, thereby encompassing >30 optical carriers. Then, we utilized a single self-locked optical carrier at 1609.6 nm to successfully transmit 128 Gb/s dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying signal over 20 km single mode fiber with ∼−16 dBm receiver sensitivity. To stem the viability of unifying the transceivers and addressing the requirements of next generation access networks, we propose self-seeded Qdash laser based wavelength division multiplexed passive optical network, capable of reaching a data capacity of 2.0 Tb/s (
${\rm{16\,\times \,128\, Gb/ s}}$
) in L-band.