Impact Statement:For nearly half a century, semiconductor lasers have become the core components of optical communication systems, optical fiber sensing systems and lidars due to their sm...Show More
Abstract:
Semiconductor lasers are widely used in incoherent/coherent optical communications, optical fiber sensing, and lidar due to their small size, high efficiency, and immunit...Show MoreMetadata
Impact Statement:
For nearly half a century, semiconductor lasers have become the core components of optical communication systems, optical fiber sensing systems and lidars due to their small size, high efficiency and immunity to vibrations. Noteworthy, the noise characteristics of semiconductor lasers have been attracting the attention of researchers and engineers with their decisive roles in high-performance systems. In this paper, we not only review the semiconductor laser noise measurement systems but also introduce laser noise suppression methods from three points: chip structures, the external optical feedback technology and the electronic controlling circuits. And the basic theory of semiconductor laser noise is introduced at the beginning of the paper. Importantly, we look forward to the future research of semiconductor laser noise from theory, measurement methods to suppression methods, which provide references for future research.
Abstract:
Semiconductor lasers are widely used in incoherent/coherent optical communications, optical fiber sensing, and lidar due to their small size, high efficiency, and immunity to vibrations. To support the continuous evolution of these high-performance application systems, the noise characteristics of semiconductor lasers play a key role and the noise levels need to be reduced to unprecedentedly low values (such as quantum limit). In this paper, a comprehensive overview on the principles, measurements, and suppressions of semiconductor laser noises are provided. First, we introduce the analysis models and key performance indicators of semiconductor lasers related to noise. Then, different noise measurement systems are investigated for semiconductor lasers and the noise characteristics are fully analyzed. Next, the noise suppression methods towards semiconductor lasers are demonstrated from three aspects: the chip structures, the external cavity optical feedback technology and the driving a...
Published in: IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics ( Volume: 57, Issue: 5, October 2021)