Improvement of optical noise in optical-injection-locked quantum dot lasers epitaxially grown on silicon by reducing external carrier noise

Abstract This study theoretically investigates the impact of external carrier noise from pumping sources on the optical noise of epitaxial quantum dot (QD) lasers on silicon. The findings indicate that the spectral linewidth and relative intensity noise (RIN) of silicon-based QD lasers using a quiet pump are significantly reduced. At 5.5 times the threshold current, the spectral linewidth decreases from 337.2 kHz to 213.2 kHz, and the RIN decreases from −141.3 dB Hz −1 to −168.8 dB Hz −1 . This reduction is attributed to the lower external carrier noise level of the quiet pump, which also suppresses the spectral linewidth rebroadening effect at a high bias current. Moreover, when external optical injection locking is applied, the spectral linewidth further decreases to 24 kHz at an injection ratio of −70 dB and to 1.8 mHz at 0 dB. The RIN also slightly decreases to −172.4 dB Hz −1 with an injection ratio of 10. These results demonstrate that using a quiet pump is an effective and manageable strategy for significantly reducing both the spectral linewidth and RIN of QD lasers, thereby facilitating their application in next-generation photonic integrated circuits, continuous-variable quantum key distribution, quantum computing and ultra-precise quantum sensing.