Compact and electrically driven active mode-locked laser at 10 GHz repetition rate based on a graphene electro-absorption modulator

In this Letter, we demonstrate an actively mode-locked laser at telecom wavelength made of graphene electro-absorption modulator on a photonic integrated circuit, inserted in a dispersion-engineered cavity with III-V semiconductor optical amplifiers as gain medium. Stable low-jitter pulse trains at 10 GHz with 2.9 ps deconvoluted pulse widths are achieved, with performances comparable to a commercial lithium niobate high-speed modulator. These results highlight the potential of integrated graphene-based devices for the realization of compact and stable optical clocks operating at high repetition rate.