Noise reduction of tunable laser based on mutual injection-locked reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers

A tunable laser source based on mutual injection-locked reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers (MIL-RSOAs) using a tunable bandpass filter was investigated to reduce relative-intensity noise (RIN) and improve the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) without additional optoelectronic compensation. Compared with laser based on self-injection-locked RSOAs (SIL-RSOAs), the laser based on MIL-RSOAs reduced RIN by as much as 16 dB and improved CNR by as much as 20 dB. The proposed method improved sensitivity for 1.25 Gb/s transmission by >15 dB compared with using traditional laser based on SIL-RSOAs.