Linearity improvement of chirped distributed feedback laser diodes based on an analog electro-optical phase-locked loop

A linearity improvement method for frequency-modulated distributed feedback laser diodes (DFB-LD) is proposed and demonstrated based on a pre-distortion signal and an electro-optical phase-locked loop (EO-PLL). The pre-distortion signal is used to reduce the deterministic frequency errors. The EO-PLL is further used to suppress the stochastic frequency noise and enhance the coherence of the DFB-LD. In the EO-PLL, the DFB-LD output is transmitted through a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and detected by a photodetector (PD) to get a beat note signal, which denotes the nonlinearity of the chirp. A mixing signal, achieved by mixing the beat note signal with a fixed frequency reference signal, is then filtered by a proportional integral filter (PIF) and feedback to the DFB-LD to reduce the stochastic frequency noise in the chirp. The EO-PLL bandwidth can be adjusted by tuning the PIF response. Consequently, a linear chirp optical signal with an enhanced linearity is generated from the DFB-LD. In the experiment, 788- and 321-time linearity improvements are implemented when the loop bandwidths are about 100 and 550 kHz, respectively. Correspondingly, residual frequency errors of 1.65 and 4.85 MHz at 52- and 450-THz/s chirp rates are obtained.