310-Femtosecond Optical Pulse Generation from a Gain-Switched Laser Diode Using Soliton Compression

Abstract
Stable subpicosecond optical pulses are generated from a gain-switched laser diode using soliton compression. The pulse width is 310 femtoseconds, which is adjusted by the input peak power and finely tuned by the DC bias to optimize the soliton condition. As a result, the experimental results agree well with theory, and the pulse width and peak power are very stable according to the estimation of temporal stability by the second-harmonic generator scheme. This indicates that fine tuning reduces the nonsoliton element.