A Wide-range Tunable Wavelength-stabilization Technique for Semiconductor Lasers

This paper presents a wide-range tunable wavelength-locking technology based on optoelectronic oscillation (OEO) loops for optical fiber sensors and microwave photonics applications, explains the theoretical fundamentals of the design, and demonstrates a method for locking the relative wavelength differences between a leader semiconductor laser and its follower lasers. The input of the OEO loop in the proposed scheme (the relative wavelength difference) determines the radio-frequency (RF) signal frequency of the oscillation output, which is quantized into an injection current signal for feedback to control the wavelength drift of follower lasers so that they follow the wavelength change of the leader laser. The results from a 10-hour continuous experiment in a field environment show that the wavelength-locking accuracy reached +/- 0.38 GHz with an Allan deviation of 6.1 pm over 2 hours, and the wavelength jitter between the leader and follower lasers was suppressed within 0.01 nm, even though the test equipment was not isolated from vibrations and the temperature was not controlled. Moreover, the tunable range of wavelength locking was maintained from 10 to 17 nm for nonideal electrical devices with limited bandwidth.