Relative intensity noise characteristics of injection-locked semiconductor lasers

An experimental and theoretical study of relative intensity noise (RIN) spectra of side-mode injection-locked Fabry-Perot semiconductor lasers is reported. It is shown that the injection-locking technique effectively increases the relaxation oscillation frequency from 4.5 GHz (free-running mode) to 12 GHz (injection-locked mode) and enhances relaxation peaks of the slave laser RIN spectra. Results from our theoretical model, which include the key parameters for semiconductor quantum-well lasers, such as the linewidth enhancement factor, the nonlinear gain saturation coefficients, and optical confinement factor, show good agreement with our experimental results. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03435-5].