Effective generation of tunable single- and multiwavelength optical pulses from a Fabry-Perot laser diode

A tunable pulse source capable of both single-and multiwavelength oscillations has been developed by self-injection seeding of a laser diode. A side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of about 20 dB has been obtained in the outputs. The key element in our setup is a wavelength multiplying stage consisting simply of 50/50 beam splitters, a diffraction grating, and a mirror. The maximum number of available wavelengths increases rapidly with the beam splitters. Our scheme can be adopted for use in high-speed wavelength switching.