High speed multiple wavelength modelocked semiconductor laser for advanced optical telecommunications

In this thesis, a single-stripe semiconductor laser is utilized to generate multiple wavelengths simultaneously by employing active modelocked operation. The dynamics and behavior of a diode laser device under multi-wavelength operation are investigated.;The study covers multi-wavelength modelocked diode laser device realization; device feature characterizations including wavelength tuning and detuning, modelocked optical pulse measurements, wavelength channel synchronization, and signal timing stabilities; and multi-wavelength phase correlation investigations through experimental and theoretical frequency resolved optical gating techniques.;It has been demonstrated that in a four-wavelength modelocked diode laser the spectral phase is highly correlated between wavelength channels. Intracavity self-generated nonlinear four-wave mixing is observed to contribute to the construction of the phase correlation. Temporal multiplexing methods are used to multiply the multi- wavelength pulse rate to provide ultrahigh transmission capacity. Maximum twenty-one continuous wavelength channels and 165-gigabit-per-second data rate are accomplished.;The modelocked multi-wavelength diode laser has unique advantages in future wavelength-to-time mapping techniques, wavelength converters and gain dynamics studies.