Parasitic-free modulation of semiconductor lasers

Abstract

Active-layer photomixing is a technique for modulating semiconductor lasers with nearly perfect immunity to device parasitics. Measurements of the intrinsic modulation response of a laser diode using this technique at temperatures as low as 4.2 K are discussed. From these measurements, the temperature dependence of important dynamical parameters is determined. In addition, this provides a stringent test of the active-layer photomixing technique since parasitic response is degraded, while the intrinsic response is improved for low-temperature operation. At 4.2 K, the ideal intrinsic response is measured for frequencies as high as 15 GHz despite an estimated parasitic corner frequency of 410 MHz.