Optical nonlinearities in quantum dot lasers for high-speed communications Heming Huang To cite this version: Heming Huang. Optical nonlinearities in quantum dot lasers for high-speed communications. Optics / Photonic. Télécom ParisTech, 2017. English. NNT : 2017ENST0012. tel-02112135 HAL Id: tel-02112135 https://pastel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02112135 Submitted on 26 Apr 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. N°: 2009 ENAM XXXX 2017-ENST-0012 EDITE ED 130 Doctorat ParisTech T H È S E pour obtenir le grade de docteur délivré par Télécom ParisTech Spécialité “ Communications & Electronique ” présentée et soutenue publiquement par Heming Huang le 13 mars 2017 Optical nonlinearities in quantum dot lasers for high-speed communications Directeur de thèse : Frédéric GRILLOT Co-encadrement de la thèse : Didier ERASME Jury T M. Christophe LABBE, École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Caen Rapporteur M. Ammar SHARAIHA, École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Brest Rapporteur H M. Dieter BIMBERG, Technische Universität Berlin Examinateur M. Olivier DURAND, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rennes Examinateur È M. Fan-Yi LIN, National Tsing Hua University Examinateur M. Philip POOLE, National Research Council Canada Examinateur S M. Frédéric GRILLOT, Télécom ParisTech Directeur de thèse M. Didier ERASME, Télécom ParisTech Co-directeur de thèse E Télécom ParisTech école de l’Institut Mines Télécom – membre de ParisTech 46, rue Barrault – 75634 Paris Cedex 13 – Tél. + 33 (0)1 45 81 77 77 – www.telecom-paristech.fr Acknowledgements Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisors, Prof. Frédéric Grillot and Prof. Didier Erasme, for their excellent patient guidance and vive support all along my Ph.D. study. I have learned a lot from their constant knowledge, professional approach, and rigorous attitude towards scientific research. I thank them for offering me international exchanges in different countries with multiple leading groups in the field, as well as for supporting me on various international conferences that help me to catch the most recent research topics and technology advances in industrial area. Working with them is a great experience which will be without doubt invaluable beneficial to my future career. I would like to thank Prof. Dieter Bimberg from Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, and Dr. Philip Poole from National Research Center, Canada, Prof. Fan-Yi Lin from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan and Dr. Jean-Guy Provost from III-V Lab, France for providing me all the experimental matters that made this work possible. Their high-quality laser samples and unique platform allowed me to achieve a rich variety of results sustaining the comprehension of underlying physics. I would thank equally Dr. Kathy Lüdge from Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, Dr. Paolo Bardella, Dr. Mariangela Gioannini, and Prof. Ivo Montrosset from Politecnico di Torino, Italy for hosting me in their renowned groups. Their thorough and enlightening understanding in optoelectronics granted me important guidance on my research work. A special thank for Dr. Kevin Schires from Telecom ParisTech, France and Dr. Cheng Wang from ShanghaiTech University, China. They aid and support me tremendously to build up the experimental abilities and theoretical background in my Ph.D. work. I would also thank Dejan Arsenijević, Tagir Sadeev, Holger Schmeckebier, Christoph Redlich from Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, Lu-Chih Lin, Chih-Ying Chen from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, Dr. Mohamed Chaibi from Télécom ParisTech, France and Dr. Ravi Raghunathan from Virginia Tech, USA for the collaborations which pulled off significant results. 1 Acknowledgements I appreciate all our collaborators Prof. Yves Jaouen, Dr. Renaud Gabet, Dr. Louise Jumpertz, Damien Maraval, Dr. Xin You, Dr. Mengdi Song from Télécom ParisTech, France, Prof. Marek Osiński from University of New Mexico, USA, Wei Wei, Prof. Lilin Yi from Shanghai Jiaotong University for meaningful scientific discussions. I would like to thank all the professors, all my colleagues and all the friends in GTO group, Télécom ParisTech who aid me in work and in life. I acknowledge the Institut Mines-Telecom for supporting my Ph.D. work via Futur & Rupture funding. Last but not least, I am very grateful to my wife and my parents for their persistent support and encouragement. 2 Table of content Table of content Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................1 Table of content ..........................................................................................................................3 List of acronyms ..........................................................................................................................7 List of figures ..............................................................................................................................9 List of tables ............................................................................................................................. 19 Chapter I. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 21 I. Optical networks ............................................................................................................... 21 II. Quantum dot lasers ............................................................................................................ 25 1. Development history ............................................................................................... 25 2. GaAs-based QD lasers ............................................................................................. 27 3. InP-based QD lasers ................................................................................................ 30 III. Motivations of the dissertation ......................................................................................... 33 1. Narrow linewidth QD lasers for coherent communications.................................... 35 2. QD lasers-based optical wavelength converters ..................................................... 35 3. Feedback resistant QD lasers .................................................................................. 37 IV. Organization of the dissertation ........................................................................................ 39 Chapter II. Fundamentals of quantum dot lasers .................................................................... 41 I. Electronic structure ........................................................................................................... 41 II. Carrier dynamics ................................................................................................................ 44 1. Carrier capture ........................................................................................................ 45 2. Carrier relaxation .................................................................................................... 45 III. Gain broadening mechanisms ........................................................................................... 46 IV. Gain dynamics ................................................................................................................... 49 1. Linewidth broadening factor ................................................................................... 49 2. Stability analysis, relaxation oscillations and damping ........................................... 52 3. Nonlinear carrier dynamics ..................................................................................... 55 4. Gain compression .................................................................................................... 57 3 Table of content 5. Optical spectral linewidth ....................................................................................... 59 V. Summary ........................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter III. Advanced characterizations of quantum dot lasers .................................................... 61 I. Investigated QD laser devices ............................................................................................ 61 1. InAs/GaAs QD lasers ................................................................................................ 61 2. InAs/InP QD lasers ................................................................................................... 67 II. Linewidth broadening factor ............................................................................................. 71 1. Below-threshold measurements ............................................................................. 72 2. Above-threshold measurements ............................................................................ 76 III. Optical spectral linewidth .................................................................................................