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Published September 4, 1989 | public
Journal Article Open

Measurement of the fundamental modulation response of a semiconductor laser to millimeter wave frequencies by active-layer photomixing

Abstract

The room-temperature modulation response of a GaAs/GaAlAs semiconductor laser (relaxation resonance frequency, vR=6.5 GHz) is measured to 37 GHz using the active-layer photomixing technique. The measured response function agrees with the theoretical ideal, and there is no indication of device parasitic effects. An ultrahigh-finesse Fabry–Perot interferometer is used to detect the optical modulation, which appears as sidebands in the laser field spectrum. With a moderately faster laser diode (i.e., vR~10 GHz), the modulation response should be measurable beyond 100 GHz.

Additional Information

© 1989 American Institute of Physics. Received 26 May 1989; accepted 26 June 1989. The authors express thanks to Nadav Bar-Chaim of Ortel Corporation for supplying laser diodes for this experiment. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation and by the Caltech Program in Advanced Technologies supported by TRW, Aerojet, and General Motors. One author (M.A.N.) is supported by an IBM graduate fellowship.

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August 22, 2023
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