Impact of Damping on High-Speed Large Signal VCSEL Dynamics
Journal article, 2015

An investigation of the optimal relaxation oscillation damping for high-speed 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) under large signal operation is presented, using devices with K-factors ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 ns. Time-domain measurements of turn-on transients are used to quantify damping dependent rise times, overshoots, and signal amplitudes. Optical eye diagrams together with timing jitter and bit error rate measurements reveal a tradeoff between the rise time and the duration of the relaxation oscillations. To produce a high-quality eye at a specific data rate, a proper amount of damping is needed to simultaneously obtain sufficiently high bandwidth and low timing jitter. We found that for error-free transmission, a VCSEL with a 0.3 ns K-factor achieved the best receiver sensitivity at 10 and 25 Gb/s, whereas a less damped VCSEL with a 0.2 ns K-factor achieved the best sensitivity at 40 Gb/s.

high-speed modulation

relaxation oscillation

semiconductor lasers

large signal modulation

vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)

photon lifetime

Damping

Author

Emanuel Haglund

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Petter Westbergh

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Johan Gustavsson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Anders Larsson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Journal of Lightwave Technology

0733-8724 (ISSN) 1558-2213 (eISSN)

Vol. 33 4 795 - 801 6933862

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Infrastructure

Nanofabrication Laboratory

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2014.2364455

More information

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4/5/2022 6