Influence of free-running characteristics on optical clock in all-optical clock recovery using a self-pulsating semiconductor laser

All-optical clock recovery is performed using a multisection semiconductor laser that can generate two kinds of self-pulsation due to compound cavity mode beating and passive mode locking. To investigate factors to influence quality of optical clock, optical clocks recovered from an optical data are compared by using various self-pulsations with different characteristics. It is experimentally demonstrated that characteristics of optical clock depend on free-running characteristics of a RF linewidth and amplitude noise. In particular, optical clock with a subpicosecond jitter is recovered by use of a self-pulsation with a narrow linewidth and low amplitude noise of the monolithic semiconductor laser in the 10 GHz regime. The free-running characteristics can be utilized as a criterion of a potential of self-pulsating semiconductor lasers for all-optical clock recovery.